By David Olive, Toronto Star Business Columnist
Canada has deepened its commitment to nuclear power, revealing last week a plan for 10 new nuclear reactors over the next 15 years at a projected cost of more than $100 billion.
Tim Hodgson, the federal energy minister, described the plan as a “new civilian nuclear renaissance” for Canada, whose last large nuclear reactor was completed 33 years ago.
Ottawa is promoting its strategy for a massive nuclear expansion as a nation-building endeavour whose merits are self-evident, though they are not.
In touting nuclear, Hodgson told a news conference on June 22 that “there is no credible plan for Canada to become an energy superpower if we choose not to build upon one of the strongest energy advantages we have.”
Yet there could be an alternative federal plan to meet a forecast doubling in Canadian power demand by 2050 if Ottawa chose to develop one.
The provinces and territories would help devise it. They, not Ottawa, have sole jurisdiction over power generation and distribution. And several of them, including Ontario, have been expanding their wind and solar capacity.
It’s easy to see why.
Nuclear reactors are hideously expensive to build, and new projects are prone to lengthy delays. So are major new hydro installations, as shown by B.C.’s $16-billion John Horgan Dam.
Keeping nuclear stations in good repair is a challenge. It was reported this week that soon after the completion this year of a $12.8-billion refurbishment of Ontario Power Generation’s Darlington Nuclear Generating Station, two of its four reactors experienced prolonged outages for repairs.
Last November, Ontario ordered a $26.8-billion refurbishment of four of the eight reactors at OPG’s Pickering Nuclear Generating Station. Progress in nuclear expansion is measured in decades.
Hodgson’s strategy plans for the first of two large-scale nuclear reactors to begin construction in 2035. Which means it will be 2040 at the earliest before they go online.
And for its strategy to work, Ottawa must succeed in persuading provinces and territories to launch or expand nuclear capacity. At least so far, the feds have not offered major funding for a nuclear build-out.
Meanwhile, by 2035, Canada’s solar, wind and battery storage capacity will have doubled from current levels based on new projects approved by provincial utilities, according to the Canadian Renewable Energy Association, an industry trade group.
The speed of renewable energy construction is demonstrated by the landmark Oneida Energy Storage Project in Haldimand County, Ont., one of the world’s largest battery energy storage facilities. It was completed ahead of schedule, in May 2025, and 12 per cent under its initial $800 million budget.
Wind and solar, relative newcomers to the energy mix, already account for just under nine per cent of total Canadian power capacity. By contrast, after a half century of nuclear power development in Canada, nuclear accounts for just 13 per cent of the total.
In a June report, the Ontario Clean Air Alliance, a Toronto-based non-profit energy research group, broke down capital cost estimates for building new electricity projects.
It found that the average cost of building new wind and solar facilities ordered this year by Ontario’s Independent Electricity System Operator is about 70 per cent lower than the estimated cost of a new large-scale nuclear power plant.
Besides cost, wind, solar and storage projects enable provinces to achieve more widespread regional economic stimulus than nuclear power plants, which in Ontario are concentrated in just two locations: the Regional Municipality of Durham and Bruce County.
Ontario, Quebec and B.C. have recently invested heavily in significant expansions to their wind and solar capacity to be completed in the next few years, a relatively brief timeline for infrastructure projects.
Ontario has just commissioned Neoen, a French developer of renewable energy infrastructure, to build two new solar plants.
One of them, a $1-billion project near Sault Ste. Marie, is expected to take just two years to build.
Canada is far behind its G7 peers, including the U.S., in making wind and solar a bigger part of its energy mix. Canada’s nine per cent wind and solar share of the total mix compares to an average of 19 per cent for both the G7 and the U.S.
The chief virtue of nuclear is that it produces vast amounts of uninterrupted power. But battery storage is eroding that advantage. Battery storage costs dropped by 27 per cent in 2025, continuing a years-long decline.
Battery storage facilities make wind and solar power available to the electricity grid as needed, sometimes covering shortfalls in periods of peak demand.
An aspiring energy superpower needs to hedge its bets against over-reliance on nuclear and hydro.
And an energy superpower should be developing its own exportable wind, solar and battery storage technology, and not have to call on outsiders to provide us with theirs.
This opinion article appeared in the Toronto Star on July 2, 2026.