Mark Carney, Pierre Poilievre to partake in competing Calgary Stampede events
Carney, who strolled the Stampede grounds on Friday night, is scheduled to attend a pancake breakfast this morning and host a party fundraiser later in the day.
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Vancouver Sun
4 hours ago
- Vancouver Sun
Alberta looks to develop nuclear power, will hold public consultations this fall
CALGARY — Alberta plans to hold public consultations this fall on adding nuclear power to the province's energy mix, Premier Danielle Smith said Monday. There have long been discussions about building reactors in Alberta — including ones that could power oilsands operations — but the province is currently reliant on greenhouse-gas emitting natural gas for electricity. Those conversations are to begin anew around September or October, when Chantelle de Jonge, parliamentary secretary for affordability and utilities, plans to hold nuclear consultation sessions. Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. 'We want to talk to Albertans, because it's new for us,' Smith told reporters alongside Ontario Premier Doug Ford after the two flipped pancakes at the Alberta premier's annual Stampede breakfast. 'It's not new for Ontario. Ontario gets 60 per cent of their power, I understand, on their grid from nuclear energy.' Small modular reactors probably make the most sense at remote rural sites that are heavy energy users, the premier added. 'Our oilsands projects are perfect for it, if you can get both the power and steam, power and heat.' Small modular reactors, or SMRs, generate about one-third of the power of traditional nuclear plants and can be prefabricated elsewhere before being shipped to site. Ontario Power Generation is building an SMR at its Darlington site east of Toronto, which would make it the first power company in North America to connect such a plant to the grid. There are plans to build three more SMR units there. Ford said SMRs don't themselves employ a lot of people when they're up and running, but they could enable tech giants like Amazon or Google to set up shop with electricity-hungry artificial intelligence data centres. 'And that's where the jobs are created because they just suck an endless amount of energy, these data centres,' Ford told reporters. 'So that's the way of the future. We're leading the world and we're gonna make sure we share that technology right across the country.' At least one U.S. developer of SMRs has a keen eye on Alberta as a growth market. 'We have designed a small modular reactor that is perfectly suited for Alberta,' Clay Sell, CEO of X-Energy Reactor Co., said in an interview last month. The problem with conventional reactors has been their complexity, he said on the sidelines of the Global Energy Show in Calgary. 'If you ever get one built, you'll run it for the next 80 years, but they're hard to build and they're capital intensive to build,' Sell said. 'So our whole approach has been from the beginning: 'How do we make it simpler? How do we make it smaller? How do we have fewer components?'' X-Energy is pursuing opportunities to add power to Alberta's grid in general, as well as to link to steam-assisted gravity drainage oilsands projects that pull bitumen from deep underground through wells rather than mine it. 'Our plant is perfectly suited to perform that same mission on a small footprint,' Sell said. OPG is looking at using X-Energy plants at industrial sites in Ontario. A much larger conventional plant is also in the works in northwestern Alberta. Energy Alberta is working on a power station in the Peace River area that would have two to four Candu reactors and a capacity of up to 4,800 megawatts. That would represent up to a quarter of the province's existing electricity generation. 'We initially thought, 'Wow, that would swamp our power grid,'' Smith said. 'And now with all the demands for AI data centres, we're thinking, 'Hmm, that's maybe exactly what we need.'' An initial project description was filed in April for the Peace River Nuclear Power Project, kicking off the federal review process. In a speech to the Global Energy Show in June, Candu Energy senior vice-president Carl Marcotte said Alberta would benefit from adding nuclear to the mix. 'Whatever Albertans decide to build, you will. But you need a lot more power to do it — reliable power that runs 24/7, power that works in great weather and when it's -45 C … and it must be affordable — it really must,' he said. 'So yes, of course Alberta's abundant natural gas resources can and should do all that … But wouldn't it benefit from having a powerful, cleaner, reliable ally in that growth, providing important baseload electricity with low emissions?' Scott MacDougall, program director of electricity for the green think-tank Pembina Institute, said nuclear could have a role to play as a clean power source, both to feed the grid and to reduce the carbon footprint of the oilsands. But there is lower hanging fruit. 'If the problem that they're trying to solve is delivering that reliable, affordable, non-emitting power right away, there should be a much more all-of-the-above approach taken in Alberta, where we think renewable energy ought to be a more central pillar in that system,' said MacDougall. 'That's partly because renewables are much quicker to deploy and lower cost as well, and their costs are coming down every year as are the costs of battery and energy storage.' Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here .
Toronto Star
6 hours ago
- Toronto Star
Carney ministers told to cut billions from federal spending
Mark Carney promised during the recent election campaign — as the new administration looks for fiscal room after pledging huge sums to the Canadian military while promising to keep expenses under control. The bigger-than-expected drive to reduce spending was billed as 'ambitious' in a letter sent to all cabinet members Monday by Finance Minister François-Phillippe Champagne and Treasury Board President Shafqat Ali.
Global News
7 hours ago
- Global News
Politicians make the rounds on Stampede circuit ahead of Calgary's next election
Politicians from varying stripes and levels of government have descended upon Calgary to flip flapjacks and get crucial face time with voters. Premier Danielle Smith was joined by Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe on Monday for the Premier's Stampede Breakfast, an annual tradition on the Monday of the 10-day event. All donning aprons, Moe handled syrup duty while Smith and Ford flipped pancakes for the hundreds in attendance. 'I'm not a professional pancake maker,' Ford joked while manning the grill. Stampede-goers and politicos packed the grounds at McDougall Centre in downtown Calgary for the event, but not all were there for the free pancakes. 'Actually, it's to talk to Danielle and other government officials,' attendee Fred Rice told Global News. Story continues below advertisement It's a rare opportunity that comes once a year during the Calgary Stampede, according to experts, for those seeking one-on-one time with elected officials. 'It's an opportunity to engage and have face time with voters in a relaxed, comfortable environment,' said Duane Bratt, a political scientist at Mount-Royal University. 'That's why it's not just politicians from Calgary, or even politicians from Alberta but politicians from across the country.' Federal political leaders also made the trip for this year's so-called Stampede circuit, with Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre hosting an event over the weekend ahead of an Aug. 18 byelection in Battle River-Crowfoot, where he is running after losing his Ottawa-area seat in the spring federal election. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy Prime Minister Mark Carney was also making the rounds at various events, meetings, as well as a fundraiser on Saturday night. 'For a few days of the year, Calgary becomes the epicentre of politics for all of Canada,' said Gary Mar, a former Alberta cabinet minister and current president and CEO of the Canada West Foundation. According to Bratt, this year's Stampede circuit feels bigger than years past due to numerous national issues, including a trade war with the United States, but also an upcoming municipal election in the fall. Candidates running to be mayor have been going from event to event since last week. Story continues below advertisement 'The (conversations) seem to be more about vision, about your plan, your platform,' said Ward 1 councillor and Communities First mayoral candidate Sonya Sharp. 'Those are great conversations to start having and we're about 100 days from the election.' Former Ward 6 councillor and 2021 mayoral candidate Jeff Davison told Global News he had upwards of 13 events on Monday. 'It's being on a listening tour, hearing what Calgarians have to say,' Davison said. 'They care about community safety, they care about affordability, they care about infrastructure, and that's overwhelmingly what we're hearing.' For Jeromy Farkas, former Ward 11 councillor and 2021 mayoral candidate, the Calgary Stampede marks the kickoff of the municipal election campaign. 'It's election season, you have a lot of politicians out making stump speeches and glad-handing,' Farkas said. 'But at the heart of it is community.' The Calgary Party, one of three political parties in the municipal race, is looking to take advantage by the increase in crowds for the Stampede. The party has temporarily put up more than 6,000 signs on light posts and in public parks and boulevards across the city in an effort to raise awareness about mayoral candidate Brian Thiessen. 'Ninety per cent of people have formed their opinion about some of my opponents, but for me, I'm new,' Thiessen said. 'I want to introduce myself to them so the signs are about them seeing us and the in-person meetings are a chance for me to tell them about what we're about.' Story continues below advertisement Calgary mayor Jyoti Gondek sported a hoarse voice after a lengthy string of events and pancake breakfasts, but said she's hearing a lot of civic pride during this year's Stampede. 'When I talk to Calgarians, they're so proud to put on community events, they're so proud to be volunteering and they're proud of their city, as am I,' she told reporters. Calgarians head to the polls on Oct. 20.
