With the July 10, 2023…

With the July 10, 2023 release of Powering Ontario’s Growth Powering Ontario’s Growth, the Province signalled a need and commitment to both procure new energy supplies and to enhance Ontario’s transmission system.

We hereby wish to offer comments regarding the proposed new regulation to describe specific matters of “provincial interest” to which the Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) may intervene in local conservation authority permitting.

While the proposed list describes a number of key areas of provincial interest, absent from this list is specific mention of “energy related infrastructure and facilities.” Given the provincial priority focus on securing Ontario’s future energy supply and its associated infrastructure (e.g. distribution and transmission facilities), we recommend that energy related infrastructure and facilities be added to this list of specific matters to which the Minister may intervene in conservation authority permitting.