QUESTION PERIOD — Ministry of Natural Resources
Renewable Energy
October 9, 2025
Minister Hodgson, a very warm welcome to you.
On September 21, senators and members of Parliament hosted the Canadian Youth Climate Assembly here in the Senate Chamber. The assembly members came together to answer the question, “What do young Canadians want Parliament to do to meet Canada’s climate commitments in a way that reflects their values and priorities?”
One of the key recommendations was to support interprovincial and interterritorial cooperation on connecting east-west and north-south electricity grids powered by clean energy. Later that same week, representatives from labour, municipalities, Indigenous groups and environmental organizations came to Parliament seeking a national east-west grid powered by renewables as a nation-building project. This national green grid was also, as you know, an election promise. How do you see that unfolding?
Thank you for the question. As the former chair of the board of the largest publicly traded transmission and distribution company in the country, the topic is near and dear to my heart. I would point out that one of the projects referred to the Major Projects Office was the Wind West development, which would be a visionary project that would connect the four Atlantic provinces to Quebec and potentially Ontario through a national transmission grid. It would enable the development of onshore and offshore wind in the Maritimes, which would be great from an economic perspective.
The Prime Minister also called out the Red Chris mine in the Major Projects Office as the first step in the Northwest Critical Conservation Corridor, which would involve transmission lines connecting the Yukon, B.C. and Alberta. The work is under way.
Godspeed with all of that, minister. I am also curious what the government is planning to do to incentivize and support renewable energy development and get clean energy projects built quickly across Canada as part of making Canada the world’s leading energy superpower, which was also, as you know, an election promise.
As you know, we’ve been talking about clean technology investment tax credits, or ITC credits, which will have a significant impact on the ability to build interprovincial transmission lines. It will also be important to the development of zero-emission nuclear power, which was another one of the major projects.
We will be the first country in the world to be producing commercial small modular reactors. The first one is under construction. There are three more planned, with potential to roll those out to other countries as well. The clean technology ITC credits are an important part of that. That will be coming in the budget.
