What is driving the dramatic increase in demand for energy generation capacity across Canada?
Abdel-Aziz: The most noticeable rise in demand is in Ontario, Alberta, and likely New Brunswick. Ontario’s electricity infrastructure deficit is looming large for government and industry. Province-wide consumption has grown substantially, but net generation capacity has been virtually frozen for over 10 years. There is significant pressure on the government to replace coal-fired generation, which supplies 20% of Ontario’s power. The older portion of the nuclear fleet, which supplies half of Ontario’s load, is nearing the end of design life. A serious gap of about 10,000 MW is forecast by 2025. Power generation projects ranging from green energy to nuclear power generation plants are underway. This is the beginning of a significant economic activity in Ontario’s energy sector. Alberta’s established oil reserves are second only to Saudi Arabia. Oil sands bitumen and synthetic crude oil are projected at 80% of Alberta’s production by 2013. Mining, extraction and upgrading activities neces
