IESO: Regional Electricity Planning in the Northwest Region – June 11, 2026

By Linda Heron on Wednesday, July 1st, 2026

The Chute, First Falls, Ivanhoe River – Photo by Mark Clement

During the June 11 webinar, ORA asked why wind, solar, and battery energy storage systems (BESS) could not supply some remote communities directly, rather than waiting on long transmission builds, when those resources are cheaper, cleaner, and faster to deploy. The IESO answered that this is “exactly the kind of options and considerations this planning process is meant to consider,” and confirmed that such supply resources “can certainly be done in a shorter timeframe” and “are a key aspect to helping address some of those more near-term needs” for remote communities.¹ ORA welcomes that answer and writes to ensure it is carried into the demand forecast, the scenarios, and the plan that follows.

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ERO-025-1146: Natural Resources Regulatory and Permit Reform Initiative: Updates to natural heritage technical guidance for renewable energy projects

By Linda Heron on Sunday, January 18th, 2026

Posted in Renewable Energy Approvals, ORA Submissions, Regulatory, Environmental Registry, Regulatory Submissions, Environmental Protection Act

Blue Heron in Waterloo, Ontario, by Leslie Bamford

ORA notes that ERO-025-1146 is framed as an update to technical guidance for REA-regulated renewable energy projects under the Environmental Protection Act (e.g., wind, solar, biogas/anaerobic digestion and thermal) and does not explicitly purport to regulate waterpower approvals. However, ORA submits that this posting is still profoundly relevant to freshwater protection because it establishes a precedent-setting governance template: reliance on proponent-retained “qualified persons,” simplified protocols, reduced monitoring expectations, and weakened independent verification. Once normalized in the REA context, this professional-reliance model may predictably be advanced across Ontario’s broader permissions reform agenda affecting Crown lands, wetlands, and river corridors. Ontario must not use “technical guidance updates” to embed a self-certification approvals pipeline that will later be applied to higher-risk project classes with long-lived impacts on Ontario’s freshwater ecosystems.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans’ (DFO) cumulative effects literature is unequivocal: project-by-project review cannot manage cumulative ecological harm when multiple stressors and developments interact across watersheds and time.

This policy package is designed to accelerate approvals by narrowing oversight, weakening verification, and reducing monitoring—precisely the conditions that guarantee cumulative impacts and long-term ecological liability.

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ERO-025-1367: Amending the Renewable Energy Approval regulation to remove certain project types from the process and streamline the review of Natural Heritage Assessments

By Linda Heron on Sunday, January 18th, 2026

Posted in Renewable Energy Approvals, Hydroelectric, Regulatory, Climate Change, Dams, River Concerns, Energy, Regulatory Submissions, Environmental Protection Act, Renewable Energy on Crown Land

Photo by Ken Bennison – Vermilion River

ORA submits that this posting cannot be assessed in isolation. It is part of a coordinated deregulatory package advanced through multiple ERO postings under the Natural Resources Regulatory and Permit Reform Initiative, designed to accelerate renewable energy approvals while dismantling independent Crown oversight. In particular, ERO-025-1367 proposes to amend Ontario Regulation 359/09 to remove Ministry of Natural Resources review/confirmation of Natural Heritage Assessments and Bird/Bat monitoring plans and replace it with proponent attestation by “qualified persons.” This model, combined with the related technical guidance changes proposed under ERO-025-1146, represents a structural shift in environmental governance: Ontario is replacing independent verification with proponent-paid assurances.

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