Prime Minister Mark Carney has unveiled an ambitious national electricity strategy aimed at doubling Canada’s power generation capacity over the next 25 years, promising lower energy bills for millions of Canadians while creating hundreds of thousands of jobs in the process.
Announced on May 14 at a Parliament Hill press conference, the plan branded Powering Canada Strong carries an estimated price tag of over $1 trillion and is projected to deliver up to $15 billion in energy savings, with roughly seven in ten households expected to pay less for their total energy by 2050.
“Canada will double its electricity generation over the course of the next two decades, because the path to affordability is electrification, the path to competitiveness is electrification, the path to net-zero is electrification,” Carney said.
The National Electricity Strategy rests on four pillars: building the infrastructure needed to double generation capacity; connecting Canada’s long-fragmented regional grids through new and expanded transmission lines; training and retaining a skilled workforce; and manufacturing more of the technology required from smart meters and wind towers to transformers and AI systems right here in Canada.
Carney acknowledged the scale of investment required is enormous, describing it as “massive,” but framed the spending as essential given surging electricity demand driven by critical minerals development, AI data centres, and advanced manufacturing.
The plan is expected to generate nearly 30,000 jobs by the end of 2028, growing to over 100,000 additional positions by 2050.
One of the more pointed sections of the strategy addresses northern and remote communities, which Carney noted are largely cut off from the broader Canadian grid a disconnect that leaves residents paying energy bills six to ten times the national average. Closing that gap is a stated priority.
On the household level, the government plans to fund energy-saving retrofits for up to one million Canadian homes through a mix of loans, grants, and complementary measures, helping families transition from propane, oil, and electric baseboard heating to more efficient electric heat pumps.
The strategy also involves revisiting the Clean Electricity Regulations finalized under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in December 2024. While the net-zero electricity target for 2050 remains intact, the Carney government says it will introduce “greater flexibility” for provinces and territories to offset residual emissions in ways that suit their regional realities.
That flexibility appears particularly relevant in Alberta, which relies heavily on natural gas for power generation and has fiercely opposed the existing regulations. A separate announcement involving Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith was expected on May 15, reportedly covering an industrial carbon pricing agreement for the province.
The strategy also makes room for liquefied natural gas, recognizing its role in providing “operational flexibility” alongside intermittent renewable sources like wind and solar particularly in Western Canada.
The announcement did not go unchallenged. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre dismissed it as a recycled set of Liberal policies that have, in his view, driven energy costs up rather than down over the past decade.
“Promises of doubling production and cutting costs are the opposite of what these Liberal policies have done. With Mark Carney, it’s more cost, more delays, more talk, more promises,” Poilievre said in a statement released the same day.
The Conservatives have proposed eliminating the industrial carbon tax, scrapping the Impact Assessment Act which Poilievre calls an “anti-development law” and giving provinces broader authority to approve energy projects without federal red tape.
The federal government says it will spend the coming months working with provinces, territories, Indigenous peoples, and utilities unions to determine how to execute the plan most effectively and affordably. Whether Powering Canada Strong delivers on its sweeping promises will likely depend on how well Ottawa can navigate that collaboration and how quickly shovels can actually hit the ground.
