No one wants blackouts.

Within this short, 12-year time frame, a blueprint for a nationally connected electricity grid that doubles our capacity must be mapped out. The land across Canada needed for this goal would have to be secured, environmental impact assessments conducted, and access negotiated in cooperation with all levels of government as well as Indigenous organizations. With such a narrow window for this build, costs to secure the necessary materials will be sky high due to demand on the supply chain.

A smarter way to reach the same end goal can be achieved with a lower tax and utility burden on all Canadians.

This proposed regulation will require massive investments which will come from the pockets of individual Canadians and businesses as ratepayers and as taxpayers.

Canadians across the country can also expect unreliable electricity if the Fed’s proposed electricity regulations remain unchallenged. Blackouts and brownouts will result when demand exceeds reserves. Solar and wind are intermittent sources that need to be supplemented with other generation options that can provide electricity whenever it’s needed.

A rush to 2035 will cost Canadians and Canadian businesses dearly.

Every individual and business in Canada that buys electricity will feel the impact. We will be paying substantially more for electricity for years to come, and any potential cost savings realized from renewables won’t be seen until past 2050. Those families with a low or fixed income are already struggling with the high cost of living; a doubling, tripling, or quadrupling of their electricity bill will be unbearable.

Absolutely. Albertans and our government care deeply about responsible environmental stewardship. Alberta has already reduced electricity emissions by 53% from 2005 to 2021, and we are confident that Alberta’s plan will get us to a reliable and affordable carbon-neutral power grid by 2050.

Legislating and regulating the development and management of electricity explicitly falls within the jurisdiction of the province (92A (1) (c)). The responsibility to power Alberta’s electricity grid is the province’s exclusive area of jurisdiction.

There is no question that the federal plan for carbon-neutral electricity will cost a lot, and that homes and businesses will pay much of these costs. The only question is how much.

Ultimately, we know it will cost many billions to green and then more than double Alberta’s grid. Available estimates suggest that the cost of changes to generation, transmission and distribution in Alberta are running in the $200 billion range to as much as $425 billion.

To cram this amount of extra cost will result in massive power bill increases for Albertans and Alberta businesses, and will make our grid unreliable as investors flee the natural gas generation market.

We’ve provided input to federal officials many times. Alberta has repeatedly highlighted the unique circumstances and challenges we face in transitioning our power system and outlined how the federal government can work with us to keep cutting emissions. However, the draft federal regulations don’t include this feedback and don’t have the flexibility, funding or support that we need.

We are already Canada’s wind and solar leader, and will add a lot of new generation by 2035. But wind and solar are intermittent sources. They don’t produce power when the sun doesn’t shine, or the wind doesn’t blow. When you plug something in you need the electricity to be there – it is not acceptable to not have power because it’s a cloudy day or the wind is calm.

Alberta’s grid had seven alerts during 2022 during relatively colder months. With electricity demand set to soar by 2050, we need a diverse mix of generation options – intermittent and baseload – to prevent future blackouts and keep a reliable grid.

Albertans and all Canadians can provide feedback to the draft CER by Nov. 2, 2023. The final regulations are expected to be published in 2024.

Alberta will commence a working group with the federal government to discuss how to bring Ottawa’s efforts to decarbonize the economy in line with Alberta’s Emissions Reduction and Energy Development Plan.

If this alignment is not achieved, Alberta will chart its own path to ensuring the province has additional reliable, affordable and sustainable electricity brought onto the power grid. This will be accomplished by ensuring an appropriate amount of high-efficiency natural gas base load is added to the grid while incentivizing innovative clean technologies like carbon capture, utilization and storage-abated natural gas generation, small modular reactors, and hydrogen generation.