A group of Canada’s business leaders are calling on provincial premiers to develop and implement a strategy to accelerate electrification.

Electrifying Canada, whose members include Teck Resources, Ontario Power Generation, Cameco and the Ivey Foundation, has released a report called Canada's Electrification Advantage in the Race to Net Zero. The document synthesizes existing research and interviews with 20 corporate and Indigenous leaders to identify what it will take to accelerate the pace of clean electrification in Canada.

The report says that while the federal government has an important role to play, responsibility for electricity and energy systems more broadly largely resides with the provinces.

“Only they have the authority to direct utilities and regulators alike to align their planning and decisions with the electrification needed to reach net-zero, and they will need to work together to optimize and integrate their power grids to do so at the lowest cost to consumers.”

The document identifies five catalysts that can help overcome current barriers to business electrification and serve as a starting point for a national electrification strategy.

• It says businesses need to act to support the early deployment of electrified solutions, and translate climate action targets into electrification plans, pilots and projects.

• Provincial governments must empower climate leadership by providing clear net-zero mandates to utilities and the regulators that oversee them.

• Utilities should align and optimize their planning with net-zero pathways to ensure that customers have enough clean power where they need it and when they need it, enabling them to increasingly electrify.

• Governments need to provide the certainty needed to drive electrification, facilitating greater investment certainty by regulating clear performance standards and guaranteeing a rising price on carbon pollution.

• Finally, electrification projects must be financed and new clean electricity supply generated by crowding in private investment, and channelling interest in private investment through innovative public–private–Indigenous approaches.

The report is accompanied by four sector briefs, including two that explore how relevant catalysts can enable the electrification of commercial and institutional buildings, and the construction and mining sectors.

"Clean electrification is key to Canada achieving net-zero, and key to ensuring Canadian businesses can compete in a low carbon world," says Susan McGeachie, co-chair of Electrifying Canada and Head of the BMO Climate Institute. "But if we are going to deliver on this, we need Canada's premiers to step up to champion electrification and take the lead in developing an electrification strategy for Canada."