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

By Linda Heron on Wednesday, July 1st, 2026

Posted in Transmission, IESO, IRRP, Alternatives, ORA Submissions, Hydroelectric, Climate Change, River Concerns, Dams, Energy, Rivers at Risk, GHG Emissions

The IRRP is the planning vehicle that is meant to consider a broad range of options, including non-wires alternatives. ORA asks the IESO to hold to that purpose in the Northwest. Several large transmission builds are already underway or contemplated for the region: the $1.2 billion dollar Waasigan line, in service between 2026 and 2027,² the Red Lake line north of Dryden, a 230 kV double-circuit build that nearly quadruples the area’s capacity, roughly 400 MW, and is expected in the early 2030s, a planned 230 kV line toward the Greenstone area, and the recently completed East-West Tie at about $777 million. The IESO has not published a cost estimate for the Red Lake line, though it almost certainly holds one; CBC reports it at $830 million. For scale, the province’s new Barrie-to-Sudbury bulk line is estimated at $1.4 to $1.6 billion. These are multi-billion-dollar commitments. A wind, solar, and battery storage package sized to a remote community’s need costs a fraction of a long transmission build and can be deployed far sooner, so communities are not left waiting years for power that a local resource could deliver.

Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →

IESO: Regional Electricity Planning in East Lake Superior – June 4, 2026

By Linda Heron on Thursday, June 25th, 2026

Posted in SMRs, Nuclear, Transmission, IESO, IRRP, Regulatory, River Concerns, Energy, Government

This regional plan shows the alternative. Local needs can be met without new bulk transmission, and the IESO’s own rationale for local supply at Sault Ste. Marie, that it reduces reliance on the transmission interface, applies equally to local wind, solar, and battery storage. Resources sited near the load need only local connections, not province-spanning corridors, and can be built faster than central nuclear or major transmission lines. Some transmission will always be needed, but it is a small fraction of what is being proposed, and it is a cumulative ratepayer commitment that the public is never shown in total. Remote communities, in particular, are where local wind, solar, and battery storage should be considered first, rather than waiting for long transmission builds.

Regional transmission and generation decisions are long-lived and effectively irreversible once made. The IESO has shown in this very plan, at Chapleau and Algoma, that real needs can be met with low-cost, right-sized solutions. The Sault Ste. Marie recommendation should be held to the same standard: prove the cost honestly, keep the competition open, and do not lock ratepayers into a fossil-gas plant that the IESO’s own analysis shows is unnecessary.

Continue reading →

North Shore Link Project (Mississagi TS to Third Line TS) Draft Environmental Study Report

By Linda Heron on Thursday, June 11th, 2026

Posted in Electricity Act, Ontario Energy Board Act, Transmission, IESO, Bulk Planning, ORA Submissions, Climate Change, River Concerns, Energy, Rivers at Risk, Government, Fisheries, Environmental Assessment Act, Mining, Species at Risk

The Project is being advanced as a designated “priority project”, and that designation matters. Under the Ontario Energy Board Act, 1998, the Ontario Energy Board (OEB) grants leave to construct a transmission line only if the work is in the public interest, but the OEB may, by law, consider only a narrow public interest: the interests of consumers with respect to the price, reliability, and quality of electricity service. The OEB does not weigh environmental effects, which are left to the Class Environmental Assessment for Transmission Facilities (2024) (Class EA), and because the provincial government has declared this Project a “priority project”, the OEB must accept that the Project is needed; it does not test need at all. The Class EA gives the public no ability to request that the decision be elevated to a Comprehensive Environmental Assessment, and the comments received during this 30-day window are reviewed and resolved by the proponent, Hydro One Networks Inc. The result is that no independent body weighs whether this line, on this route, at this cost, and with these environmental effects, is the right choice for the public, while ratepayers and taxpayers carry the full and long-term cost.

Continue reading →

Hydro One: Northeast Power Line Project (Sudbury to Thessalon) Draft Environmental Report

By Linda Heron on Wednesday, February 18th, 2026

Posted in Transmission, Proponent Led Process, ORA Submissions, River Concerns, Energy, Rivers at Risk, Government, Industry, Environmental Assessment Act

These are distinct legal mechanisms. The priority-project designation primarily affects the energy regulator’s review of need, whereas the NEPL exemption directly alters the application of environmental assessment law. In practical terms, the NEPL exemption compresses environmental scrutiny at the assessment stage rather than at the energy-regulatory stage. Where multiple streamlining tools are used across the transmission expansion portfolio, it becomes especially important that the Final ER for this project demonstrate full transparency, climate resilience, and rigorous cumulative-effects analysis.

Continue reading →

Request for Designation under Section 9 of the Impact Assessment Act Enhancing Transmission Capacity North of Dryden, Red Lake Transmission Project

By Linda Heron on Wednesday, December 17th, 2025

Posted in Transmission, ORA Submissions, Hydroelectric, Regulatory, River Concerns, Dams, Energy, Rivers at Risk, Government, Regulatory Submissions, Species at Risk, Water Quality, Impact Assessment Act

Hydropower reservoirs and headponds—particularly those subject to fluctuating water levels—are well-documented sources of methane emissions. When peatlands or peat-rich wetlands are flooded or hydrologically altered, even in boreal peatlands, long-term carbon sinks can convert long-term carbon sinks into persistent sources of greenhouse gases and, specifically, higher fluxes of methane.

The foreseeable environmental effects engage multiple areas of federal jurisdiction. Transmission-enabled hydropower development in northern watersheds poses risks to fish and fish habitat protected under the Fisheries Act, to species listed under the Species at Risk Act, and to migratory birds protected under the Migratory Birds Convention Act. These risks are compounded in northern Ontario, where peatlands, bogs, wetlands, and fens are widespread, and where mining development under the Critical Minerals Strategy is anticipated to extend into the Hudson Bay Lowlands peatland complex, one of the world’s largest intact carbon sinks. The disturbance of peatlands through transmission corridors, access roads, mining infrastructure, or hydropower reservoir flooding represents a foreseeable and irreversible long-term climate impact with direct implications for Canada’s greenhouse gas commitments.

Continue reading →

ERO-025-1212 – Enhancing Transmission Capacity North of Dryden – The Red Lake Transmission Project

By Linda Heron on Saturday, December 13th, 2025

Posted in Ontario Energy Board Act, Transmission, ORA Submissions, Hydroelectric, Environmental Registry, Regulatory, River Concerns, Energy, Rivers at Risk, Environmental Bill of Rights, Impact Assessment Act

Lake Sturgeon trapped in hydroelectric overflow channel.

The Energy for Generations report also mischaracterizes hydropower as “clean” and “non-emitting,” despite decades of global research confirming that reservoirs are significant methane sources, often on par with gas plants. Emissions intensify as reservoirs warm, water levels fluctuate, and organic sediments accumulate behind the dam—conditions prevalent across northern Ontario.

No cumulative-effects assessment has been conducted. The Province has not evaluated the combined impacts of hydropower expansion, mining, new transmission corridors, wastewater and agricultural inputs, industrial discharges, or climate-driven hydrologic shifts—contrary to federal science guidance from DFO and Environment and Climate Change Canada.

Ratepayers also face growing financial increases and risks. The government is proposing to shift early-stage hydropower planning, incentives, and consultation costs—including Indigenous consultation costs—onto electricity bills, an unprecedented transfer of speculative project risk from proponents to the public. Transmission capital costs are likewise recovered from consumers, meaning premature expansion will financially burden households and businesses for decades.

Continue reading →

IESO-Northern Ontario Connection Study

By Linda Heron on Thursday, May 15th, 2025

Posted in Bill 5, Transmission, IESO, ORA Submissions, Hydroelectric, Regulatory, River Concerns, Dams, Energy, Rivers at Risk, Government, Fisheries, Species at Risk

The extremes of climate change are reported to be a high risk in all regions of Ontario, and this Report outlines the linkages between climate risks and energy security. Climate change will present several risks to provincial energy systems, including hydroelectric, where water availability is crucial.

Of course, policies, programs and regulations aimed at protecting water supply and quality such as the Environmental Protection Act (1990), the Electricity Act, Ontario Water Resources Act (1990), provincial land use planning statutes including the Planning Act (1990), Ontario’s Clean Water Act (2006) are all in the process of being exempted/ gutted by the province, with the intent of cutting red tape, excluding the public and Indigenous communities from consultation and engagement in what is left of the environmental assessment and permitting processes.

Continue reading →