Good afternoon, esteemed members of Parliament and fellow panellists. Thank you for the invitation to speak with you today.

For more than 75 years, ATCO has delivered electricity to hundreds of communities and millions of people in Canada and around the world. Today, we operate electric utilities in Alberta, the Yukon and the Northwest Territories, as well as Puerto Rico. We own more than 700 megawatts of power generation—approximately 500 megawatts of which is derived from wind and solar projects—with a development portfolio of more than 1.5 gigawatts in future renewable projects.

In sum, we have a uniquely holistic view of the electricity sector in Canada, from wind turbines and solar panels to transmission and distribution lines, all the way to meters at our customers' homes. It is in this perspective that I would like to frame my remarks this afternoon.

The first priority for us is affordability and reliability. I want to begin by stressing the importance of maintaining reliability and affordability as the grid evolves. In each jurisdiction we serve, these topics are front and centre in the minds of our customers. In Alberta, volatile electricity prices and the cost of new distribution and transmission infrastructure are of paramount concern. These issues are anticipated to grow as gas-fired generation retires and renewable capacity is added to the grid, which will require new transmission infrastructure.

Meanwhile, in our Yukon service territory, the rapid uptake of distributed energy resources, which we are a part of and support, has resulted in unintended consequences for power quality. Specifically, last spring, we recorded six events when fluctuations in solar output, paired with inadequate system inertia, resulted in sudden load increases that put grid stability at risk. These are challenges we are working on with the provincial and territorial governments and system operators to address, but they highlight the sometimes unintended consequences for customers associated with a rapidly decarbonizing grid.

Over 90% of the renewable projects that were added in Canada last year were in Alberta.

Our second priority is accelerating climate adaptation. While we're focused on maintaining affordability and reliability, we're collectively facing an increasing number of climate-related events. The vast and remote nature of our service territories in Alberta, the Northwest Territories and the Yukon requires enhanced planning to maintain system integrity in the face of a changing climate.

In recent years, we've seen an increase in both the frequency and duration of outages in our system, due in part to damage from weather-related events. We're investing in climate adaptation and resilience, such as improving the materials and standards we use for our distribution and transmission poles, and selectively undergrounding wires where possible. Another very helpful thing was the wrapping of the base of power poles up to about three metres. It has provided a lot more resistance against wildfires. These things can make a difference.

However, these climate adaptation measures often require significant upfront investments and can lead to higher electricity rates. Finding a sustainable balance between resilience and affordability will be crucial for all electric utilities in Canada and needs to be considered by policy-makers as an additional pressure facing our systems.

Our third and last priority is policy certainty. The reliability and resiliency challenges are complicated by challenges with policy and regulation. We remain concerned that the proposed clean electricity regulations may result in big impacts to reliability and affordability and potentially to public safety for customers. The latest considerations regarding the CER framework appear to provide some flexibility. However, without clear numbers, it's impossible to determine what their cumulative impacts will be at this time.

We're awaiting progress on federal permitting reform. To reach our net-zero goals by 2050, we'll require dramatic acceleration, provincially and federally, in the permitting and construction of electricity infrastructure. Expediting permitting for net-zero generation is important, but expediting permitting for transmission lines is equally critical, including interties and connections to remote indigenous communities. In Canada, it can take up to a decade or more to build a high-voltage line, and many of these projects will be built simultaneously.

Thank you.