SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

Ontario Assembly

43rd Parl. 1st Sess.
November 16, 2022 09:00AM
  • Nov/16/22 11:00:00 a.m.

Thanks to the member opposite for the question. He does come from Durham region, which is Ontario’s clean energy capital—Canada’s clean energy capital, as a matter of fact—home to Darlington and Pickering nuclear generating stations, with 76,000 people working in this sector in Ontario and across the country.

The Premier had the vision three years ago to sign an MOU and to lead the MOU with three other provinces—Alberta, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick—on the deployment of small modular reactors, and boy, have we seen progress on this file since he had the vision to do that.

This time last year, OPG decided on the technology that they were going to be building on the site at Darlington, the GEH BWRX-300, a 300-megawatt small modular reactor that is going to be producing clean, reliable electricity on our grid by 2028. Saskatchewan has signed on to purchase potentially four and site them in their province to help them eliminate coal generation in Saskatchewan. We have seen TVA, one of the largest utilities in the United States, sign on and collaborate. And just a couple of weeks ago, the federal government signed on with almost a billion dollars from the Canada Infrastructure Bank—

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  • Nov/16/22 11:00:00 a.m.

My question is for the Minister of Energy.

Our government continues to champion the use of nuclear power, and rightfully so. Nuclear power represents a critical component of Ontario’s energy production. In the past, the minister has spoken about the untapped potential of small modular nuclear reactors in providing a safe, stable, reliable source of energy to meet our future electricity needs.

Speaker, while this all sounds very promising, it has led to questions from my constituents about this new energy technology and what it can offer to our province.

Can the minister please tell us more about SMR nuclear technology and what our government is doing to continue to advance this energy source?

What is our government doing to show global leadership and provide our European and global allies with access to and understanding of this new technology?

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