Canada’s National Electricity Grid: What Happened in 2025

This review looks back at 2025, the year the concept of a coast-to-coast national electricity grid was publicly refreshed in Canada. It follows the vision as it was set out through the year by the media and research organizations, the power industry, the federal and provincial governments, and the country’s leading think tanks.

The review traces how a high voltage direct current transmission “backbone” came to be argued for on the grounds of energy independence, energy security and inter-provincial trade, and sets out the barriers that continue to impede an east-west grid: the difficulty of developing major transmission lines, the trouble in quantifying and financing the benefits of interconnection upfront, and the scale of the projects themselves. All related texts and citations refer to the publications referenced.