In its monthly update on energy trends, Statistics Canada reported this week that this year, for the first time ever, Canada has become a net importer of electricity. The switchover in our electricity trade balance reveals the shortcomings of an energy strategy that now emphasizes decarbonization over energy security, leaving customers vulnerable to supply shortfalls and higher prices.

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Traditionally, Canada has generated surplus electricity that it has exported to the U.S. But in April total electricity generation was down 6.9 per cent from a year ago, continuing a trend that began earlier this year. The decline is the result of droughts across much of the country that have curtailed hydroelectric generation as well as planned maintenance at nuclear stations.

Hydro and nuclear account for just over two-thirds of all electricity generation in Canada. Hydro contributed 26.0 million megawatt-hours (MWh) and nuclear 5.2 MWh of the total electrical production of 45.7 MWh in April. With hydro and nuclear power generation falling at home, we had to import 2.6 million MWh from the United States in April, while our exports plunged a whopping 64.4 per cent to 1.7 million MWh.

Canada’s plan to lower greenhouse gas emissions largely depends on hydro power supplying most of our rapidly growing energy needs. We remain ambivalent about nuclear power, with Ontario and New Brunswick the only two provinces producing it after the Parti Québécois government closed Quebec’s only nuclear plant in 2012.

Critics of wind and solar power often emphasize their intermittent nature when the wind is not blowing or the sun not shining. Intermittent electricity sources like these require maintaining reliable backup energy sources, notably power plants that burn fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas or coal. The recent reduction in hydro generation highlights how it, too, can sometimes be an unreliable source of power.

Recent events underscore the fundamental importance of secure energy supply to customers. Energy security means a reliable and affordable supply. Any prolonged interruption of supply would be catastrophic. In February 2022 Texas was within minutes of its electrical grid collapsing during an ice storm, a calamity that could not have been fully repaired until May. Here at home, Alberta’s grid was pushed almost beyond its limit during a severe cold snap this January. That would have been more consequential and life-threatening than a grid collapse in Texas given the extreme cold Alberta was experiencing.

Electricity is fundamental to the lives and lifestyles of most Canadians. As former Ontario cabinet minister Dwight Duncan observed at a recent conference on energy policy, Ontario and Quebec have the highest energy demand in the world because of peak demand in both winter and summer. But there is a disconnect between Canada’s ambition to electrify our power grid and our reluctance to expand electricity capacity. Electrifying our homes and vehicles while using energy-hungry technology implies a massive increase in our electricity consumption.

Only recently have governments begun to realize projected electricity demands far exceed supplies. That is why Ontario and Quebec recently announced ambitious and expensive plans to boost generation. Ontario is expanding and refurbishing its extensive network of nuclear plants. In Quebec, the Legault government recently installed Michael Sabia as head of Hydro Quebec to carry out a plan to substantially increase hydro and wind power to meet future demand, discarding plans that emphasized energy conservation and inevitably would have required unpopular price hikes. Alberta’s near-death experience has led it to restructure its grid to reduce the priority given to unpredictable renewable sources.

Canada’s shift to being a net importer of electricity so far this year is a reminder that we have much work to do to increase production, especially since importing American electricity means relying on high-emission fossil fuels to generate power. Our plodding approach to building mega projects in recent decades raises serious questions about whether we will be successful.

The European Union’s single-minded focus on decarbonizing its energy supply ended even before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as the cost to households, industry and governments mounted. Richard Norris of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute characterizes our own refusal to acknowledge the primordial importance of abundant and cheap energy as “energy blindness.” That blindness needs to end.

Financial Post

Philip Cross is a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.

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