Powering Canada’s Future: National Energy Corridor Partnership Announced

A New Partnership

On March 4, 2026, a new partnership was announced with several provinces and territories to advance a proposed national energy corridor aimed at strengthening transmission connections with British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Yukon, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and the Northwest Territories. Parties will collaborate to identify and advance new transmission infrastructure, expand electricity trade within Canada, advocate for federal support and partner with Indigenous communities in energy development. A key element of the partnership is that participating governments will work together to identify and advance new interprovincial and territorial intertie projects on an accelerated basis.

The initiative responds to rising electricity demand, reliability needs and broader economic and electrification objectives. Participating governments have also indicated an interest in ensuring Indigenous participation and shared project benefits. The announcement further positions the partnership as a key part of Energy for Generations, Ontario’s long-term integrated energy plan, which is intended to support energy security, reliability and economic growth in the province. For more information on this energy plan, see our bulletin Ontario Releases Energy for Generations, the Province’s Inaugural Integrated Energy Plan.

Ontario already maintains significant interprovincial transmission capacity, and additional connections could enhance the ability of participating governments to export more clean electricity as new generation and storage resources are connected to the grid. Quebec was not identified as an initial participant but has signalled openness to further cooperation, provided provincial control over energy decisions is maintained and projects demonstrate clear economic value.

Addressing Regulatory Challenges

Interties are expected to play an important role in Canada’s transition to a net-zero electricity sector because low- and non-emitting generation resources such as hydro and nuclear are unevenly distributed across the country. However, interprovincial transmission developments often move slowly through planning, procurement and regulatory approval processes. The Atlantic Loop project, for example, was originally conceived as a network of high-capacity transmission lines linking Hydro-Québec and Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro assets with New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. However, Nova Scotia later announced that the project was no longer viable for 2030 because of affordability and availability concerns. As well, recent regulatory complaints involving Manitoba Hydro and the Alberta Electric System Operator suggest that existing intertie arrangements can raise disputes over whether provincial tariffs, rules and reliability standards provide fair and non-discriminatory access to transmission capacity and wholesale electricity markets. For more information, see Recent Legislative and Regulatory Developments of Interest to Energy Lawyers.

These challenges help illustrate where the new national partnership and associated regulatory frameworks may play important roles. At the federal level, faster approvals could potentially be supported through new permitting streamlining measures, including the Building Canada Act framework to advance projects deemed to be in the national interest and the Cabinet Directive on Regulatory and Permitting Efficiency for Clean Growth Projects. For example, the North Coast Transmission Line in Northwest British Columbia was among the several projects referred in the second tranche to the Major Projects Office in November 2025. For more information, see our bulletin Second Tranche of Projects Referred to Canada’s Major Projects Office. At the provincial level, Ontario has already been exploring project-specific tools such as priority designations and, in some cases, the possible elimination of leave-to-construct requirements for selected transmission projects. Most recently, on March 6, 2026, Ottawa and Alberta announced a prospective deal to apply a “one project, one review” approach to major projects, under which projects within Alberta’s jurisdiction would generally be deferred to the provincial review process, while projects involving federal land or federal jurisdiction would proceed through an integrated federal-provincial process. The parties have reached the prospective deal with the stated goal of improving efficiency in regulatory review and permitting processes.

Looking to the Future: Benefits and Implications of the New Partnership

A Clean Electricity Strategy report published by Natural Resources Canada (NRCan Report) in 2025 outlines several benefits to strengthening transmission connections, including:

• Supporting Energy Storage and Renewable Generation: Additional interties could support the development of new renewable generation and energy storage by making it easier to move surplus clean electricity to regions facing supply constraints. In particular, Ontario could become a larger long-term supplier of clean electricity for new nuclear, energy storage and other low-carbon projects.
• Encouraging Data Centre Development: As Canada is an increasingly attractive destination for data centres, expanded transmission capacity could help provinces serve growing electricity demand from large industrial users and data centres, particularly as data centre demand is expected to increase according to updates from provincial grid operators like the Alberta Electric System Operator, the Independent Electricity System Operator and Hydro-Québec.
• Strengthening the North: In Northern regions of Canada, improved grid connections could reduce diesel dependence, support resource development and create partnership opportunities with Indigenous communities.

According to the NRCan Report, these benefits could be broadened further if international intertie projects receive similar support, as Canada and the United States already maintain significant electricity trade, and current public policy materials indicate that provinces and states are building new transmission connections to capture the advantages of more integrated electricity systems and markets. Greater support for international intertie projects could therefore improve reliability and energy security, expand market access for Canadian clean electricity and reinforce longer-term cross-border planning and cooperation.

In relation to the proposed National Energy Corridor, the next step will be watching how participating governments implement this partnership in practice through identified projects, coordinated approvals, expanded electricity trade and federal support for major new transmission corridors.

For further information, please contact the authors or any other member of our Power and Energy Regulatory groups.