A Second Golden Spike for an Electrified Canada: Using Carney’s Budget to Link the Provinces - CleanTechnica

Mark Carney’s first budget as Canada’s Finance Minister introduced the Clean Electricity Investment Tax Credit, a 15% refundable credit aimed at new generation, storage, and interprovincial electricity transmission projects. This fiscal measure is designed to catalyze the development of a national, low-carbon electricity grid by linking the currently fragmented provincial systems. Historically, Canada’s electricity infrastructure was developed regionally with minimal east-west interconnections, resulting in three asynchronous grids (Western, Eastern, and Québec) that cannot freely share large amounts of power. This fragmentation limits the country’s ability to meet growing electrification demands across transport, industry, and data centers, as well as its climate goals. Canada’s abundant hydropower resources, particularly in Québec, Manitoba, and British Columbia, act as natural batteries capable of balancing intermittent renewable generation. By connecting these provinces through high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission corridors, Canada could leverage time zone differences and complementary renewable patterns—such as solar peaks in the west