Minister, thank you for being here. Canada has long been recognized for its potential for small modular reactors, or SMRs, to provide clean, reliable and affordable energy, particularly for northern and remote communities across the country that still depend on diesel generation. Canadian researchers and companies have been global leaders in this field.

Ontario’s work at the Darlington site shows very positive progress, yet despite this potential, the pace of development remains very uneven. New Brunswick, once an active partner, has scaled back SMR ambitions, and many in the Arctic communities see little prospect of accessing this technology in the near future.

Minister, what concrete measures is your department taking to translate this early promise into results, both in delivering clean, cheap energy for Canadians — especially in the North — and positioning Canada as a global leader in this technology?

Thank you for your question. Canada is absolutely a leader. We’re the first country in the world building small modular reactors. We’re building our first one in Darlington, as you mentioned. There are three more behind that.

There are active conversations going on now with New Brunswick, Saskatchewan and Alberta, who all have interests, and the federal government is interested in working with them.

As it relates to the North, you’re probably talking about something more like a micro-reactor. There is no commercial technology anywhere in the world doing that today. Atomic Energy Canada has a project where we would look at small micro-reactors that would be in the 10- to 30-megawatt range, which would be perfect for some northern communities or maybe some northern mine sites. That’s something my department is working on right now.

Is there now, given what has been happening at Darlington, a sense of when we might see the result of this investment and this technology being put to use? Not only are many parts of the country awaiting the result of this, but there are other governments that would very much like to access this technology as soon as we can get in on stream.

Yes. The answer is that the other provinces are watching very closely. Ontario Power Generation, or OPG, the proponent building that reactor, is taking something that is called first-of-a-kind risk. Often, the issue with nuclear is that the first project has the potential to have significant cost overruns, so proponents are reluctant to do that.

In the case of OPG, they are being a leader in the world in taking that first-of-a-kind risk and driving down the cost curve to make it more effective. I think you’ll see other provinces, as OPG executes —