“The bottom line is that we’re going to need much more power than we have now.”
That’s what Kelowna MP Stephen Fuhr told Black Press Media in response to two recent energy announcements made by the federal government.
On Thursday, May 14, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the new National Electricity Strategy, with the goal of doubling Canada’s power grid by 2050, while reducing energy costs for seven in 10 households across the country.
In the announcement, four supports were outlined, one of which was to connect the fragmented grids across the country. Fuhr explained that British Columbia and Quebec run on hydro, Ontario runs on nuclear, and the Prairies use a combination of sources.
“We want to tie that together so it’s more resilient, so we can improve resiliency,” said Fuhr. “On top of all that, we want to reduce emissions over time. I didn’t know this before, but we’re more tied to the U.S. than we are to each other, electrical-wise.”
Canada’s electricity grid moves more north-south than it does east-west. In this new strategy, Canada is seeking to become more east-west oriented.
“As we move forward to provide more capacity to meet this 2050 demand as we ramp up, we want to make sure we move to a cleaner, more reliable source that is more east-west orientated, so we can be more reliant on ourselves,” said Fuhr. “That’s the bottom line of what we’re trying to achieve.”
The need for increased electricity is a topic Fuhr is learning about firsthand, outside of being Kelowna’s MP and Canada’s Secretary of State for Defence Procurement.
Kelowna’s MP lost his home in 2023 during the Grouse Complex wildfire that struck the Central Okanagan. He was able to rebuild and moved into his new home three months ago, but joked he’s hardly spent time there as he is always on the go for work.
“The amount of things now that run on electricity in a home, like heat pumps, electric vehicles, induction, stovetops, as an example, and there’s way more things, but those things draw a ton of power,” said Fuhr. “New builds, new construction, just rely on electricity a lot more than they used to.”
He explained that in today’s world, 200 amps of electricity is the new standard, and that’s still a number residents can quickly pass due to everything that uses electricity. Meanwhile, if one were to upgrade, the next panel is 400 amps; there is no in between.
“We need to start moving on that now because it’s going to take some time,” said Fuhr.
In this effort to reduce emissions, reduce costs, and increase electricity, the federal government will be talking with the various provincial and territorial governments, Fuhr added. Locally, discussions will also take place with BC Hydro and FortisBC.
Alberta Agreement
The following day, on Friday, May 15, Carney announced that the Federal government and the province of Alberta came to an agreement to reduce emissions and diversify exports.
In the agreement, the effective carbon price will be $130 per tonne by 2040 and the headline carbon price will be $140.
Alberta has agreed to a stronger industrial carbon pricing regime, which will stabilize the carbon markets, Fuhr explained. Canada and Alberta also agreed on annually tightening or ‘stringency’ rates under the Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction (TIER) system.
“We didn’t think we were going to be in this place, but this is where we’re at,” said Fuhr.
“I think geopolitical changes that have occurred in the last 18 months with the United States stepping back from its traditional role in the world… the reality is they are not behaving as they had predictably been behaving for the past 70 years,” said Fuhr. “Canada and many other countries have to rethink the way they do things. They have to rethink industrial strategy, energy security, infrastructure resilience, sovereign capability, export diversification, and alliance redundancy.”
Fuhr added that this doesn’t just apply to Canada, as many countries have to “rewire everything” because of changes with the U.S.
“The biggest economy and military on the planet has chosen to behave completely differently than they had before,” Fuhr continued. “For right or for wrong, this is happening. And as a result, it changes the path that we were on. We thought we were on this path. Well, guess what? We’re on a different path now.”
When it comes to the Alberta agreement, the tiered system was something that was never imagined 5-10 years ago, Fuhr mentioned.
“The system we had wasn’t working. We’ve agreed to a new system, or they have agreed to a new system that we think will work. That’s the nuts and bolts,” said Fuhr.
He added that the project isn’t really about Alberta, calling it a “nation-building project.”
“We live in a different reality than we did. And there’s certain things that we’re going to have to do differently. We can certainly do this responsibly and ethically.”
He also mentioned that it’s achievable because Canada has lots of natural advantages, energy, critical minerals and a “large educated workforce.”
“Canada is and can be an energy superpower, in both conventional and renewable,” said Fuhr. “There’s still a fairly large appetite on the planet for conventional energy. The demand still exists, and Canada can supply that energy under stronger environmental, regulatory and labor standards than many competing jurisdictions.”
The local MP also brought up a possible pipeline for B.C., saying that while support needs to come from the provincial government, First Nations groups will greatly benefit the province.
“To think that B.C. wouldn’t benefit from a pipeline is nonsensical,” said Fuhr. “The path, if it comes from central Alberta to the coast, two-thirds of its path comes through British Columbia. There literally will be thousands and thousands of construction jobs for many years building this pipeline. I think the pipeline does add economic benefit to British Columbia and to think that it doesn’t, I think, is probably not being really fair about the project.”
Fuhr added that for the majority of the country, “Canadians want that social safety net that we have become accustomed to,” mentioning healthcare, dental and pharmacare.
“These big revenue-generating projects of national interest are a part of generating revenues so the government can support Canadians,” explained Fuhr. “I got to keep saying it because it, because it matters. We want to continue to support Canadians and the way they need to be supported and want to be supported, but that requires revenue.”