Justin Trudeau hints at boosting Canada’s military spending

I'll believe it when I see it.

 

[ytz]

the Europeans would have to step up quite a bit and start walking the talk to ignore the current US administration

The Europeans were ramping defence spending already. After this? I think they will see this as a full mask off moment from the Trump Admin. They will understand they have no choice now.

 

[suffolkowner]

The Europeans were ramping defence spending already. After this? I think they will see this as a full mask off moment from the Trump Admin. They will understand they have no choice now.

Im thinking more on aid to Ukraine

 

[quadrapiper]

Im thinking more on aid to Ukraine

New at-home spending suggests, if nothing else, that you might feel more confident sending kit to Ukraine.

 

[Ged117]

And with our hard left population/judiciary, we're not getting to build more of those plants. Seems all the viable solutions (nuclear and hydro) are opposed by the left as they bleat for more sustainable energy, just not THAT kind of sustainable energy.

Not to distract from the primary topic, but we're talking about the country's strategic interests so I thought I would chime in a bit on the electricity side of things (respectfully). There are several nuclear and hydro projects either almost done, being built, or newly agreed between parties and in the pre-development stage. The new Site C hydro facility in BC is now generating at about half its capacity and the province is looking to build renewables as supplement to its very hungry grid. It wasn't a picnic to get Site C done and it wasn't cheap but why would a long-lived (100 years plus) electricity generation asset (some drought risk notwithstanding) be cheap. NL finally finished its Muskrat Falls hydro project and the Labrador Island Link to send that hydropower to the island helping to retire an old thermal asset and enable some refurbishments and new builds elsewhere, and the feds have helped out with project re-financing because its a big project for NL to swallow on its own and there were some project management and cost issues. NL and QC recently settled their 1969 Churchill Falls contract dispute and it looks like they're settling in on getting new hydro facilities (thousands of megawatt range) built together on the same river system as Churchill Falls and Muskrat, plus upgrades to the original Churchill facility. Hydro-Quebec just announced they are going to build a training facility for all the labour they're going to need to build 5000km of transmission lines, hydro station upgrades, and more renewables to meet the province's anticipated demand as transport and space heating and industrial processes demand for electricity grows.

Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Ontario utilities have agreed to work together on deploying SMRs (small modular nuclear reactors, in the 300 MW range each) in those provinces. The feds are funding predevelopment activities on SMRs for SaskPower and NBPower (some folks may not know, NBPower operates a nuclear facility at Point Lepreau), which includes pre-engineering, environmental work and consultations, etc. (there's lots of work to meet Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission permitting requirements for new sites, and it could go faster). I'm not sure they'll end up with SMRs or conventional Canadian CANDU reactors once the unit costs are laid bare but we'll see. Ontario is going all-in on nuclear with big-dollar refurbishments of its existing assets, SMRs, and may build a new conventional CANDU reactor facility that will, if completed, be one of the largest nuclear facilities on the planet. Canada is a top tier nuclear country and we control about 85 percent of the supply chains for our facilities. Most of the provinces, especially Alberta, have built a ton of renewables in the past 10 years, and with demand and extreme weather events knocking at the grid's reliability they're going to need more generation (gas+nuclear+renewables+batteries) and better transmission links with their neighbours (they've said as much).

Manitoba Hydro built its Keeyask hydro facility and it came online a few years back and they sell about 20-25 percent of their annual generation to the U.S., which when you think about it makes no sense when their neighbour to the west could use that power. The biggest risks with building new nuclear and big hydro generation facilities where the resource is located is cost containment, both for the generating asset and the transmission lines to your load centres in this era of supply chain competition and labour shortages, and the Constitutional requirement that Indigenous Peoples of this country are properly engaged early on and consulted on projects, and ideally given ownership in the game if we want things built. The provinces need to find a way to fund east-west projects that are in their benefit and by doing that reduce the costs on any one province in expanding or refurbishing its system. I think we can be really proud of what we've got and its a hell of a foundation to build a future economy on, especially if we can work together better and get past some self-imposed barriers to getting stuff planned, financed, and built.

Sorry for the chapters here but I think its something worth adding.

 

[MilEME09]

Not to distract from the primary topic, but we're talking about the country's strategic interests so I thought I would chime in a bit on the electricity side of things (respectfully). There are several nuclear and hydro projects either almost done, being built, or newly agreed between parties and in the pre-development stage. The new Site C hydro facility in BC is now generating at about half its capacity and the province is looking to build renewables as supplement to its very hungry grid. It wasn't a picnic to get Site C done and it wasn't cheap but why would a long-lived (100 years plus) electricity generation asset (some drought risk notwithstanding) be cheap. NL finally finished its Muskrat Falls hydro project and the Labrador Island Link to send that hydropower to the island helping to retire an old thermal asset and enable some refurbishments and new builds elsewhere, and the feds have helped out with project re-financing because its a big project for NL to swallow on its own and there were some project management and cost issues. NL and QC recently settled their 1969 Churchill Falls contract dispute and it looks like they're settling in on getting new hydro facilities (thousands of megawatt range) built together on the same river system as Churchill Falls and Muskrat, plus upgrades to the original Churchill facility. Hydro-Quebec just announced they are going to build a training facility for all the labour they're going to need to build 5000km of transmission lines, hydro station upgrades, and more renewables to meet the province's anticipated demand as transport and space heating and industrial processes demand for electricity grows.

Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Ontario utilities have agreed to work together on deploying SMRs (small modular nuclear reactors, in the 300 MW range each) in those provinces. The feds are funding predevelopment activities on SMRs for SaskPower and NBPower (some folks may not know, NBPower operates a nuclear facility at Point Lepreau), which includes pre-engineering, environmental work and consultations, etc. (there's lots of work to meet Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission permitting requirements for new sites, and it could go faster). I'm not sure they'll end up with SMRs or conventional Canadian CANDU reactors once the unit costs are laid bare but we'll see. Ontario is going all-in on nuclear with big-dollar refurbishments of its existing assets, SMRs, and may build a new conventional CANDU reactor facility that will, if completed, be one of the largest nuclear facilities on the planet. Canada is a top tier nuclear country and we control about 85 percent of the supply chains for our facilities. Most of the provinces, especially Alberta, have built a ton of renewables in the past 10 years, and with demand and extreme weather events knocking at the grid's reliability they're going to need more generation (gas+nuclear+renewables+batteries) and better transmission links with their neighbours (they've said as much).

Manitoba Hydro built its Keeyask hydro facility and it came online a few years back and they sell about 20-25 percent of their annual generation to the U.S., which when you think about it makes no sense when their neighbour to the west could use that power. The biggest risks with building new nuclear and big hydro generation facilities where the resource is located is cost containment, both for the generating asset and the transmission lines to your load centres in this era of supply chain competition and labour shortages, and the Constitutional requirement that Indigenous Peoples of this country are properly engaged early on and consulted on projects, and ideally given ownership in the game if we want things built. The provinces need to find a way to fund east-west projects that are in their benefit and by doing that reduce the costs on any one province in expanding or refurbishing its system. I think we can be really proud of what we've got and its a hell of a foundation to build a future economy on, especially if we can work together better and get past some self-imposed barriers to getting stuff planned, financed, and built.

Sorry for the chapters here but I think its something worth adding.

SMR could also make resource exploration and electricity in the arctic cheaper