Ontario looks to go ahead with three more small modular nuclear reactors – by Jeff Gray (Globe and Mail – July 7, 2023)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Ontario is charging ahead with its bet on small modular nuclear reactors, announcing that its electricity utility will seek approvals for three more of the units on the grounds of its Darlington power plant, where it has already applied to build one of the new and largely untested systems.

Energy Minister Todd Smith unveiled the province’s plan for the SMRs on Friday at the site next to the existing Darlington nuclear facility in Clarington, about 80 kilometres east of downtown Toronto. Preparatory work is already under way, with newly paved roads leading to a large expanse of sun-baked dirt that has been cleared and flattened by a fleet of bulldozers.

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Ontario starts pre-development work for new, large-scale nuclear plant – by Allison Jones (Toronto Star/Canadian Press – July 5, 2023)

https://www.thestar.com/

TORONTO – Ontario is looking to build the first new, large-scale nuclear plant in more than 30 years in order to meet the province’s growing electricity demands. Energy Minister Todd Smith announced Wednesday that the government is looking at a new plant to generate up to 4,800 megawatts — enough to power 4.8 million homes — on the site of Bruce Power’s current generating station on the shore of Lake Huron in Tiverton, Ont.

Bruce Power will now start community consultations and conduct an environmental assessment for federal approval to determine the feasibility of another nuclear plant.

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Opinion: The energy transition Ontario really needs is to nuclear – by Lawrence Solomon (Financial Post – June 9, 2023)

https://financialpost.com/

When you factor in its reliability, nuclear is cheaper than solar or wind, which are available only intermittently

If Ontario wants to keep its lights on and its economy stable, it needs to abandon the fantasy that wind and solar power can make a meaningful contribution to its energy needs. In the absence of untapped hydroelectric sites, the provincial government’s determination to outlaw fossil fuels in pursuit of an all-electric society means Ontario has no choice but to go nuclear.

Large-scale wind and solar have never been competitive, despite the narrative since the first Earth Day in 1970 that plummeting costs eventually would see them overtake fossil fuels. Today, a half century later, wind and solar in Ontario remain two to four times as expensive as nuclear, four to eight times as expensive as hydroelectricity, and 10 to 20 times as expensive as fossil fuels would be in a free market.

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How Vic Fedeli is trying to sell Ontario to the world – by Steve Paikin (TVO Today – June 5, 2023)

https://www.tvo.org/

The Nipissing MPP got off to a very rough start in government, but he’s found his calling as economic-development minister

Five years ago, Vic Fedeli was sure he’d got as high up the mountain of Ontario politics as he could. Yes, he’d run for leader of the Progressive Conservative party in 2015, but he didn’t make it to the finish line. And when leader Patrick Brown was turfed by his caucus in early 2018, MPPs picked Fedeli to hold the fort as interim leader.

But that was all temporary crisis management until party members chose a permanent leader in Doug Ford. After seven years in opposition, Fedeli figured he’d finally landed where he could have the most impact when the newly elected premier installed him as the first Tory finance minister in 15 years, back in June 2018.

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Stellantis says it awaits ‘official answer’ from Ottawa amid report there’s a tentative deal to save EV plant – by Robert Benzie and Tonda MacCharles (Toronto Star – May 1, 2023)

https://www.thestar.com/

Auto giant Stellantis says it is still awaiting a formal offer from the federal and provincial governments in order to keep its massive new battery factory in Windsor.

Auto giant Stellantis says it is still awaiting a formal offer from the federal government in order to keep its massive new battery factory in Windsor. The Star reported Wednesday that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier Doug Ford reached a tentative deal on subsidies to ensure the plant’s survival.

But the parent company of Chrysler, Jeep and Fiat said Thursday it has not received anything in writing from Ottawa. “Stellantis doesn’t confirm what has been reported and hasn’t yet received any official answer to its letters,” said Stellantis Canada communications head LouAnn Gosselin.

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Time running out for Ontario to formally request Pickering nuclear power station extension – by Colin D’Mello and Isaac Callan (Global News – May 30, 2023)

https://globalnews.ca/

Ontario’s electricity generator has yet to file an official application to extend the life of the Pickering nuclear power plant, more than eight months after the Ford government announced it planned to give the plant a longer life.

As the province faces an electricity capacity crunch in 2025 and beyond, the Ford government scrambled to prolong the Pickering power plant until September 2026, in order to guarantee a steady supply of power as the province experiences a rise in demand and shutdowns at other nuclear power plants.

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OPINION: Pay me now, pay me later, pay me again: the Trudeau government’s industrial strategy – by The Editorial Board (Globe and Mail – May 18, 2023)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The thing about paying a ransom is, once word gets around, you end up with another ransom note in hand before too long.

The federal and Ontario governments are learning that painful, yet predictable, lesson, now that Stellantis and LG Energy Solution seemed to have noticed that competitor Volkswagen extracted far better terms for its state-subsidized electric-vehicle battery factory than they were able to secure for their state-subsidized facility a year ago.

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Volkswagen to invest in mines in bid to become global battery supplier – (CTV News – March 17, 2023)

https://www.ctvnews.ca/

BERLIN – Volkswagen plans to invest in mines to bring down the cost of battery cells, meet half of its own demand and sell to third-party customers, the carmaker’s board member in charge of technology said.

Its strategy aligns with a wider trend of carmakers seeking greater control over parts of the supply chain traditionally left to third parties, from energy generation to raw material sourcing, as they compete for scarce resources they urgently need to meet electrification targets.

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Magna investing $470 million to build new Ontario battery assembly plant, retool factories – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – February 15, 2023)

https://financialpost.com/

Will build a 500,000 square foot factory in Brampton, Ont., to help Ford keep up with surging demand for its F-150 Lightning

Canada’s biggest maker of automobile parts is set to assemble batteries for Ford Motor Co.’s F-150 Lightning pickup trucks — the electric version of the best-selling vehicle in North America and perhaps the most hotly anticipated EV since Teslas hit the market more than a decade ago.

Magna International Inc. said Feb. 15 that it will invest $470 million to build a 500,000 square foot factory in Brampton, Ont., to help Ford keep up with surging demand for its F-150 Lightning and also to retool five existing factories in the province. Aurora-based Magna said the expansion will create more than 1,000 jobs.

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Canada can build an electric vehicle industry worth $48B a year — but it must act now: report – by Don Pitts (CBC News Business – September 14, 2022)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/

Canada needs a strategy quickly in order to capitalize on payoffs in jobs and economic growth

As climate change shows its growing destructive power in floods and droughts worldwide, even strong advocates for the transition from using fossil fuels to battery-powered electric vehicles know EVs won’t be enough to fix the problem.

But as the North American auto show opens to glitz and fanfare, a new report from two reputable Canadian research groups says that Canada has a brief window to be a major player in transforming an industry worth hundreds of billions of dollars annually into something more climate friendly — and to make money doing it.

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Ontario’s top auto sector minister heading to Korea, Japan to drum up more EV and battery investments – by Mehanaz Yakub (Electric Autonomy Canada – September 2, 2022)

https://electricautonomy.ca/

Vic Fedeli, Ontario’s minister of economic development, job creation and trade is heading to Asia next week to meet with several key global automakers and battery manufacturers, with a goal of further building the province’s evolving auto and electric vehicle sector.

In an interview with Electric Autonomy Canada, Fedeli says the trip will begin in South Korea, where he will meet with “several prospects” to help expand Ontario’s EV supply chain. Fedeli would not name who these prospects will be, but says that the government has been meeting with them for “some months” and they are companies they “hope to land” in Ontario soon.

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‘It’s shameful’: Critics slam Doug Ford’s plan to replace nuclear power with natural gas – by Rob Ferguson (Toronto Star – August 23, 2022)

https://www.thestar.com/

Ontario’s plan to replace electricity generation when an aging nuclear plant closes in 2025 has critics saying the province didn’t get the memo on the growing dangers of climate change. Of six new contracts announced by the province’s Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) on Tuesday, four are for power to be generated by burning natural gas, while the other two — for wind and energy storage — account for less than 10 per cent of the 764 megawatts under contract.

Energy Minister Todd Smith defended the procurement, made in the wake of last year’s IESO warning that phasing out gas-fired power plants before 2030 would result in rotating blackouts and higher electricity bills because alternate supply and transmission lines could not be built in time.

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‘It’s shameful’: Critics slam Doug Ford’s plan to replace nuclear power with natural gas – by Rob Ferguson (Toronto Star – August 24, 2022)

https://www.thestar.com/

Ontario’s plan to replace electricity generation when an aging nuclear plant closes in 2025 has critics saying the province didn’t get the memo on the growing dangers of climate change.

Of six new contracts announced by the province’s Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) on Tuesday, four are for power to be generated by burning natural gas, while the other two — for wind and energy storage — account for less than 10 per cent of the 764 megawatts under contract.

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OPINION: U.S. climate bill’s EV incentives are not the game-changer North American auto industry was hoping for – by Konrad Yakabuski (Globe and Mail – August 9, 2022)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The good news for Canada’s auto industry is that Canadian-built electric vehicles might some day be eligible for a US$7,500 tax credit under the breakthrough climate bill that U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to sign into law later this week, which scraps the Buy American provisions of an earlier legislative proposal that failed to win congressional approval.

The bad news is that, for now, the sourcing requirements in the Inflation Reduction Act, which passed the U.S. Senate on Sunday thanks to a tiebreaking vote by Vice-President Kamala Harris and is slated for a vote in the House of Representatives on Friday, are so restrictive that few EVs currently on the market, or expected to be produced in the next few years, could possibly meet them.

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Tesla steps up lobbying effort with Ontario, Ottawa to set up a ‘manufacturing facility’ – by Adam Radnowski (Globe and Mail – August 9, 2022

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Canada’s ambitions of becoming an electric-vehicle powerhouse are being newly fuelled by interest from Tesla Inc. in locating a major manufacturing facility in Ontario.

While rumours of such an investment by the pioneering EV maker were kick-started last week by CEO Elon Musk’s offhand remarks during a shareholders’ meeting, an apparent recent shift in the company’s lobbying efforts offers more substantive evidence of the possibility.

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