Building for Tomorrow
Issue #6 | March 2026

Canada has entered a new era of nation-building. As Ottawa promises to “build, baby, build,” the provinces line up behind new trade corridors and the private sector awaits new business opportunities – the stakes for Canada’s economic future are high.

Rail lines, airports, ports, roads and pipelines are essential contributors to national prosperity. However, not all infrastructure is created equal, and the “how” of project approvals deserves just as much attention as the “what.”

Building for Tomorrow tracks, analyzes, explains and critiques the policies, projects and politics shaping Canada’s trade-enabling infrastructure.

National demand for electricity is expected to double in the next 25 years, according to 2023 forecasts. At the same time, Canada is aiming to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. 

It is in this context that nuclear power is drawing a significant amount of national attention. 

Why nuclear power?

The primary advantage of nuclear power is that it is a source of reliable, low-emissions electricity. Unlike wind or solar, a nuclear facility produces consistent baseload power regardless of weather conditions and uses significantly less space for that power generation. 

Canada’s nuclear power agenda

Canada has a history of nuclear innovation. We are a Tier 1 nuclear nation, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency, “with over 60 years of experience with nuclear energy and a full-spectrum supply chain,” and we are the second-largest producer of uranium globally, after Kazakhstan. 

We invented the CANDU reactor in the 1960s (a technology that is now used around the world to generate power), and four commercial power plants in Ontario and New Brunswick produce approximately 15 per cent of Canada’s electricity. The last reactor built in Canada was completed in 1993. However, Canada now has new nuclear ambitions regarding both traditional facilities and Small Modular Reactor (SMR) technologies, with two major developments on the horizon.  

The Darlington SMR project in Ontario is on track to be the first SMR in the G7, and Alberta and Saskatchewan may be Canada’s third and fourth provinces to add nuclear power to their grids. 

Plans for new large-scale nuclear facilities

In addition to the ongoing refurbishment and maintenance of current facilities, two new projects are in the pipeline for development in Canada.  

First, Bruce Power is engaged in preliminary planning to expand the world’s largest nuclear facility in Ontario.  

Second, the province of Saskatchewan announced in January 2026 that it will evaluate the feasibility of implementing large nuclear reactor technologies for use in the province. 

Canada’s small modular reactor strategy

Canada is also part of a global race to develop SMR technology. SMRs differ from traditional reactors because they are: 

  • Small relative to traditional nuclear reactors, producing up to 300 megawatts of power; and 
  • Modular, meaning that the parts can be factory-produced and then shipped to the construction site. 

These factors impart two key advantages. SMRs theoretically have lower up-front costs than traditional reactors, and their smaller power output allows for a wider variety of applications (though nuclear projects have a long history of cost overruns).  

The primary public-sector push for SMRs is a four-province MOU between New Brunswick, Ontario, Saskatchewan and Alberta, signed in 2019 by the first three provinces and joined by Alberta in 2021. In 2022, the four provinces released a joint strategic plan for the development of SMR technology.  

Projects in Ontario, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia 

There are plans for five grid-scale SMRs currently underway in Ontario and Saskatchewan. The Darlington site project (one of the 11 projects that was referred to the Major Projects Office) is slated for completion in Ontario by 2030 and is expected to be the first operational SMR in the G7. This will be followed by four similar units in Saskatchewan, with the first unit to be in service by 2034. 

Two nuclear-waste burning SMR designs are being developed for deployment in New Brunswick, with both projects aiming to be operational in the next five years. Both of these designs can recycle nuclear waste. 

Finally, nuclear micro-reactors (which produce 1-20 MWe) are designed to provide power in remote locations for communities and industrial projects. These projects are still in the exploratory phase. The Saskatchewan Research Council is currently seeking licensing to build a demonstration unit. 

Nuclear power in Alberta

Unlike in the other provinces, electricity in Alberta is a de-regulated market where private providers compete to supply low-cost power. Nuclear facilities in Alberta will therefore be spearheaded by industry, unless the provincial government develops a new implementation model down the line.

Partnering in the MOU helps Alberta leverage Ontario and New Brunswick’s experience with nuclear power to tailor its regulatory framework. Companies such as Capital Power, Ontario Power Generation and Energy Alberta are currently assessing the feasibility of nuclear power projects in Alberta. 

Opportunities and risks

Expanding Canada’s nuclear power and technology capabilities not only has the potential to add a significant amount of non-emitting electricity to our power grid, but it will also generate significant employment and government revenue.  

For example, the four-province joint strategic plan estimates that New Brunswick’s demonstration units will generate nearly 1,500 jobs, increase GDP by $2 billion and generate $200 million in government revenue. If these demonstration units lead to a fleet of Canadian and internationally exported units, by 2060, the industry could generate an additional 18,000 jobs, increase GDP by $60 billion and generate $5 billion in government revenue. 

Nuclear power does come with two key downsides: meltdown risks and the long-term management of nuclear waste.  

However, nuclear meltdowns are exceedingly rare. There have only been two major accidents in the history of nuclear power – Chernobyl and Fukushima Daiichi. SMRs also have the potential to be even safer than traditional reactors because they can harness passive processes (processes that do not require power or supervision) to prevent a meltdown.  

Nuclear waste is an issue that does need to be managed. Currently, all nuclear waste from power plants in Canada is held onsite at interim storage facilities. However, the Nuclear Waste Management Association, an organization tasked with the safe, long-term management of Canada’s nuclear waste, has identified the future location for a deep geological repository in Ontario to store all of Canada’s used nuclear waste. 

Next steps

Nuclear development is in motion in Canada. Several facilities should be completed in the next three to five years, and, if those projects are successful, more are likely to follow. This momentum highlights the importance of Canada streamlining its project approval processes, as has been discussed in previous issues of Building for Tomorrow. If impact assessments and other regulatory processes remain too slow and unwieldy, Canada risks losing out on these opportunities. 

Each month, Building for Tomorrow explores new developments in trade-enabling infrastructure in Canada, such as the rationale behind national projects, negotiations and agreements between different Canadian jurisdictions and developments in approval processes and policy.

Building for Tomorrow is written by Ryan Workman. If you have any developments you’d like to see featured or topics that you think should be covered, please send them to .

Further reading