Ontario Must Modernize Transmission Procurement to Power Growth

August 26, 2026 - Today, the Toronto Region Board of Trade released 'The Case for Strategic Transmission Procurement', calling for the select use of competitive procurement to deliver the transmission infrastructure needed to power growth and compete for global investment.  

As Ontario enters its largest transmission build in decades, the province's review of the Transmitter Selection Framework offers a unique opportunity to evolve Ontario's approach to meet those needs. 

Electricity demand is surging, and Ontario cannot afford to fall behind. We need reliable energy infrastructure built now to power the industries, jobs and growth. Our economic future, in the face of unprecedented uncertainty, will depend on whether we can build energy infrastructure fast enough, and at a cost businesses and households can afford. 

When Ontario evaluates a transmission project, it rightly considers what it costs to build. We also need to better recognize what it costs to wait.  Transmission projects, like Duff-Coleman, have shown that projects that use competitive procurement can deliver ahead of schedule. 

A transmission line completed one or two years earlier can unlock billions in private investment, thousands of jobs and broader economic development. Delays can push investment to jurisdictions able to provide electricity capacity sooner. 

Competitive procurement should complement, not replace, the existing transmission sector by bringing additional capital, specialized expertise, engineering capacity and execution capability where they can improve delivery. 

The report offers six recommendations to evolve Ontario’s transmission procurement framework: 

1. Faster time-to-connect 
2. Greater execution certainty 
3. Meaningful Indigenous partnership 
4. Greater cost certainty and lifecycle value 
5. Expanded delivery capacity 
6. Stronger domestic industrial capacity and economic value creation