Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin, president and CEO of WaterPower Canada
Elisa Obermann, executive director of Marine Renewables Canada
Francis Bradley, president and CEO of the Canadian Electricity Association
John Gorman, president and CEO of the Canadian Nuclear Association
Michelle Branigan, CEO of Electricity Human Resources Canada
Robert Hornung, president and CEO of the Canadian Renewable Energy Association
In the depths of the Great Depression in the last century, President Franklin D. Roosevelt launched an effort that revolutionized farm life in the United States. The New Deal’s Rural Electrification Act not only put thousands of jobless people to work, it improved quality of life for struggling rural families and greatly increased productivity in agriculture.
As leaders of the organizations that represent the breadth of Canada’s electricity sector, we believe that this country can seize a similar opportunity as it seeks to recover from the steep economic slump precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Backed by analysis from the International Monetary Fund, the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) recently urged governments around the world to ensure that their economic recovery efforts are used to modernize their energy systems. In August, incoming federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland signalled that the restart of Canada’s economy “needs to be green” and that decarbonization “has to be part of it.”
