Un-Powering Canada, A Blueprint for Vapourizing Canada’s Wellbeing

We should be sure many eco-warriors across Canada were recently elated when the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources under the watchful eye of their Minister, Jonathan Wilkinson, released the “Powering Canada: A blueprint for success”, a 110-page report from the Canada Electricity Advisory Council whom he presumably appointed or blessed.

It is amusing as if one does a search on “Bing” using the following;  (“A Blueprint for Success “+emissions) most of the first ten links that pop up will lead you to the “Powering Canada” report, however should you look at the eleventh link it is; “Australia’s energy transition: a blueprint for success”! Going to the latter site discloses it is an 11-page report dated September 2019 and was researched by three individuals for the Grattan Institute on behalf of the Australian government.  Page 3 of the report is the “Overview” and one of the findings states: “Australia’s commitment to the Paris Agreement means cutting carbon emissions to near zero over the next 30 years. This must be done at the lowest cost, while ensuring energy supplies remain reliable.“

Is Ten Times Bigger Better?

Powering Canada: A blueprint for success as noted above is 110 pages whereas the Australian version; A blueprint for success is only 11 pages but the objective of reaching  “net-zero” by 2050 is identical. While the Canadian “blueprint” twists itself into knots trying to put a price on achieving the target the Australian version doesn’t; simply stating; “The rapid increase in variable, zero-marginal-cost supply, closure of coal and gas generators, electricity storage, and more active demand response make it harder for the current market to provide the price signals for new investment.“ Apparently the Canadian visionaries believe they can fully evaluate the costs out to 2050 and suggest; “The modelling results showed that under the most likely scenario, capital investments of approximately $1.4 trillion will be needed by 2050 to enable the necessary growth of the electricity system. At an average of $55 billion per year, this is roughly double the current rate of capital expenditure.”

As noted, the Aussie report was prepared by three individuals whereas the Canadian version had 19 Council members and data supplied by an entity under a grant provided by taxpayers. More on the foregoing will be found below!

Council Members

Of the 19 members 7 represented actual provincial entities and PEI was presumably represented by Maritime Electric and Atco Electric presumably represented Alberta.  I could find no representation from New Brunswick.  Other members included the Smart Grid Innovation Network, (an advocacy group supporting the transition), Efficiency One, (a not for profit from Nova Scotia), two generating companies (beyond Maritime Electric and Atco Electic),  Jason Dion of CCI (Canadian Climate Institute, a charity with Rick Smith reigning as the CEO and where Bruce Lourie is a director perhaps because he has previously worked with Rick Smith),  three from First Nations. The last two members of the council are none other than Bruce Lourie of the Ivey Foundation, and the Council Chair Philippe Dunsky, the founder of Dunsky Energy and a “net-zero” fan.

Research Source

One would have thought with representation from nine provinces the “Council” would have had the capabilities to gather sufficient data to pull together the forecasts for costs associated with the “net-zero” target but instead they contracted a charity to provide the forecasts and data allowing the council to reach their 110-page conclusion!

The charity handed the contract was “the Transition Accelerator, an energy think tank, to conduct a nuanced and data-driven analysis. The Council provided oversight and guidance for this analysis.“

Interestingly the Transition Accelerator is one of many Bruce Lourie creations where he sits as the Board Chair. In a review of the CRA Charity filings for the Transition Accelerator it is unclear why they were registered as a charity. The reason for the foregoing assumption is in the five years of financials currently on the CRA Charities website it is noteworthy the Transition Accelerator have received “ZERO” donations requiring them to issue a “charitable receipt”!  In a review of the Federal Governments, Grants and Contributions file however it’s information discloses the Transition Accelerator have received in excess of $3.8 million in grants. One of those grants of $1.224 million from Natural Resources Canada is for an “Agreement” for “Building Decarbonization Alliance”!  We should assume they delivered that “nuanced and data-driven analysis “ referenced in the 110 page “Blueprint for success” thanks to the taxpayer grant handed out by Minister Wilkinson!

Electricity Rates Up or Down

The reputed conclusions associated with full Decarbonization and Electrification in the report claims:  “70% of Canadian households are expected to see net savings in 2050 (Figure 15) of about $1500 per year on average. Specifically, 6.3 million households would see an increase in their energy wallet spending (an $8 billion increase overall). Meanwhile, 15 million homes would share a net savings of $23 billion. In aggregate, Canadian households stand to save $15 billion annually as a result of the switch to electricity.“ The conclusions go on to claim the above percentage: “drops to 58% for lower-income households“ and the reason given is, they don’t own one of those electric vehicles!

Conclusion:

Should one believe the foregoing contained in the Canadian version of “A blueprint for success” then surely you would also believe; “pigs can fly”!