TransCanada Power Corridor:
A National Grid Uniting Canada
SPECIAL REPORT
NOVEMBER 20, 2025
Summary: TransCanada Power Corridor: A National Grid Uniting Canada
This report has developed a vision for reimagining the architecture of Canada’s energy landscape enabled through development of an east–west power corridor — a national grid — that links all the provinces and regions of Canada as part of seamless flow of energy trade through electrification. This can only be accomplished by reducing fragmentation across provincial jurisdictions as part of a whole-of-government, whole-of-society approach. If substantial social, economic and political benefits of a unified country are to be realized, then Canada must treat the TransCanada Power Corridor as a project of national urgency, akin to the construction of the transcontinental railway in the nineteenth century.
Highlighted below are the “Conclusions” and “Recommendations.” Specifically, the recommendations address the challenges of governance, regulation, trade and finance.
Conclusions
- The TransCanada Power Corridor links the entire continent from the West to the East and represents more than an energy project; it is a nation-building enterprise that fuses climate security, energy sovereignty, infrastructure resiliency, innovation and technology development, and national prosperity into a single strategic vision. Its success depends not only on technical feasibility but on urgent and collaborative governance, the recognition of electricity as a strategic trade asset, and the establishment of a robust financial architecture aligned with national purpose.
- Canada’s prosperity and sovereignty are best secured by re-imagining the national energy landscape with an East–West TransCanada Power Corridor — a national electricity grid — for energy transfers across provincial boundaries.11 High-voltage (DC or AC) transmission towers, co-located where practical with rail/highway right of ways, serves as the backbone of an electrified energy economy fit-for-purpose for the twenty-first century.
- The objective of minimal dependence on the use of fossil fuels (<20 percent share in final energy consumption) by 2050 is feasible through broad-based electrification of the economy. Diverse pathways and opportunities for electrification exist within each province to support a clean energy economy.
- One consequential impact is a massive growth, fivefold increase, in electricity demand increasing from ~700 TWh (2025) to ~1,950 TWh (2035) and ~3,550 TWh (2050), with installed capacity expanding ~80 GW to ~220 GW and finally ~400 GW.
- Success is contingent on timely investments in the necessary infrastructure and a focus on rapid deployment of generation and transmission technologies. The building of a national power grid unlocks mutual benefits: a ten to twentyfold increase in interprovincial electricity trade, balancing diverse provincial resource endowments (hydro, nuclear, geothermal, wind and solar with storage) and creation of an energy system focused on electricity trade across Canada away from today’s balkanized, north–south oriented flows.
- The end-state goal by 2050 is an energy economy with a share of clean electricity at 80 percent in total final energy consumption has the potential for eliminating ~8,500 PJ of oil and gas requirements from current consumption and enabling a decisive reduction in carbon emissions from the current levels of 700 Mt to 450 Mt in 2035 and 200Mt in 2050.
- Historical evidence shows electricity has delivered higher GDP per unit energy than fossil inputs. Electrification embodies not only an effective climate strategy, but it provides an overall economic growth strategy for improving national productivity. An investment strategy for the provision of abundant, clean, affordable electricity as the critical input for driving growth of the intangibles economy (AI, digital services, and advanced technologies in manufacturing and service sectors).
- The national grid as an enabler of an energy transition to deliver a clean energy future will require expansion of transmission capacity within each province (high-voltage DC/AC lines, modern substations and digital controls to manage grid reliability) and new interconnection facilities. Siting of the power corridor along rail/highway corridors — where practical — is a strategy to minimize land-use conflicts and accelerate permitting and community engagement.
- For power generation, four main building blocks are highlighted for system expansion that draw upon the existing resources and strengths within each province: hydro, nuclear, wind and solar with storage, and geothermal energy resources (shallow and deep). A “smart gas strategy” will be necessary for grid support, peaking requirements and optimization of intermittent generation.
- To meet the challenges of a massive increase in generation capacity (2035-2050), several transformative generation options have been identified that are not currently included in the system expansion plans of the provinces. These illustrative examples, will require further analysis, but offer opportunity pathways for future development:
- A long lead time, high-impact opportunity for further evaluation of Mackenzie River Hydroelectric complex with a capacity of ~13,000 MW capable of producing ~92 TWh/yr to support decarbonization goals for Alberta and Saskatchewan.
- Advanced nuclear technologies that can complement existing renewable resources and with new reactor designs (SMRs) that can provide reliable, low-carbon baseload electricity to support electrification of transport, heating and industry.
- Advanced industrial innovation to leverage the drilling and geological expertise and know-how of the Alberta oil-and-gas sector for the cost-effective utilization of enhanced geothermal system for base load electricity generation allowing a global level scale-up of deep rock geothermal energy extraction.
- The Province of Saskatchewan offers a unique Canadian advantage to transition from uranium mining to full-scope provision of nuclear services including fuel fabrication to re-use of nuclear waste for electricity generation and to close the nuclear fuel cycle without geological disposal.
- Wind and solar technologies are now cost-effective established energy resources. Further economic value to be harnessed is through integrated large-scale storage capable of delivering firm dispatchable power.
- The suite of solutions on the customer demand side is highlighted, which include smart grids as enablers of smart urbanization to help reduce cost and risk. Aspects of this strategic development include targeting electrified transport, building retrofits, two-way smart grids and ICT-enabled demand response to flatten peaks, improve reliability and ensure affordability.
- A strategy that includes growth of a durable service-sector (the intangibles economy) with deployment of AI as the spur for productivity uplift across industry and services.
Recommendations
Governance and Regulation
Harmonization of provincial regulatory approaches with an overlay of a national framework for enhanced east–west trade in electricity will be critical to the realization of benefits for all Canadians.
Building on established approaches to collaborative federalism, further development of a structured partnership between federal, provincial, territorial, Indigenous and municipal governments, supported by private industry, unions, civil society and academic institutions would be necessary. Without such collaboration, constitutional disputes over natural resource jurisdiction and infrastructure approval processes will delay progress and erode public confidence.
In that spirit, it is recommended that a National Energy Infrastructure Council be established under the aegis of the recently announced Major Projects Office, or alternatively, the Canada Energy Regulator. The Council, chaired by the prime minister, becomes a single point of focus for convening premiers, Indigenous leadership and industry stakeholders for binding decisions.
The Corridor must be framed, not as a discretionary option, but as a project of national importance for integrating energy security, climate resilience, national security and sovereignty.
Electricity Trade as National Strategic Asset
The primary goal of an east–west corridor is to reverse the historic dependency of north–south flows of trade in electricity by creating a robust internal market capable of absorbing any surplus generation in any province and distributing it efficiently across provinces. This provides Canada with a clear pathway for linking energy security with national security and sovereignty, and a capacity to insulate Canada from future geopolitical trade disputes.
In addition, enhanced electricity trade across Canada increases leverage, positioning Canada as an indispensable clean-power supplier in North America, and it also increases global export capacity enabling liquefied hydrogen, green steel and critical-mineral processing powered by Canada’s low-carbon electricity to compete internationally.
Just as wheat, oil, and minerals underpinned past national growth, abundant clean electricity and deep expertise and knowhow in clean electricity generation, engagement, and distribution must now become Canada’s twenty-first century comparative advantages.
Finance: Aligning Capital with National Purpose
A transformative end-state vision for 2050 described in this report will require investment in infrastructure in the order of billions of dollars in capital in the 2050–2060 time frame. The scale of the change proposed cannot be funded solely through traditional ratepayer models.
A national financial architecture must be designed to attract private and institutional capital while ensuring public accountability. Several options exist that require further consideration and could include the following:
- establishing a Canada Clean Infrastructure Sovereign Fund, capitalized through federal green bonds and co-investment from the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and major provincial funds;
- mobilizing public-private partnerships, but with safeguards against foreign capture of critical infrastructure;
- creating a pan-Canadian green finance taxonomy, aligned with EU and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development standards, to attract global capital markets while preserving domestic oversight; and
- leveraging carbon border adjustment mechanisms in trade agreements to finance corridor expansion by tying Canadian exports to verifiable clean-energy inputs.
Any combination of the approaches outlined above allows flexibility to move away from reactive taxation and introduces a focus on market approaches for sovereign financing.
Final Conclusions
Canada can reduce its dependency on fossil fuels, US energy markets and foreign digital infrastructure by advancing broad-based electrification of the economy. It can position itself as a global middle-power leader in climate, energy and digital governance. The east–west power corridor is a constitutional project of our time — an indispensable step towards a sovereign, sustainable and resilient Canada in 2050.
This can only be accomplished, however, by reducing fragmentation across provincial jurisdictions as part of a whole-of-government, whole-of-society approach. If substantial social, economic and political benefits of a unified country are to be realized, then Canada must treat the east–west power corridor as a project of the utmost national urgency, akin to the construction of the transcontinental railway in the nineteenth century.
With a timely commitment to the TransCanada Power Corridor as enabler of clean electricity trade and transfers across provincial boundaries, Canada can future-proof its economy and decarbonize decisively.
Endnotes
11. The TransCanada Power Corridor is envisaged as an integration of three regional grids (West, Central, East) linked through inter-connections across provincial boundaries.