Electricity demand is surging, and Ontario cannot afford to fall behind. The Case for Strategic Transmission Procurement calls for the select use of competitive procurement to help deliver the transmission infrastructure Ontario needs 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 is an opportunity to evolve how major projects are procured, with a greater focus on speed and long-term value.
The stakes are significant. Projects like Duff-Coleman show that competitively procured transmission can deliver ahead of schedule and at strong value. Bringing a transmission project online even one or two years earlier can unlock billions in private investment, thousands of jobs and broader economic growth.
Competitive procurement should complement, not replace, Ontario’s existing transmission framework. Used strategically, it can bring additional capital, specialized expertise, engineering capacity and delivery capability to projects where they can improve outcomes.
Six recommendations to strengthen Ontario’s transmission procurement framework:
- Faster time-to-connect
- Greater execution certainty
- Meaningful Indigenous partnership
- Greater cost certainty and lifecycle value
- Expanded delivery capacity
- Stronger domestic industrial capacity and economic value creation
