The Ontario NDP Must Invest in Public Nuclear Power

This article complements ‘Ontario’s Costly Nuclear Folly,’ by David Robertson, originally published in Canadian Dimension on June 2, 2025.

The Ontario New Democratic Youth’s (ONDY) 2024 policy book envisions a future for Ontario that sounds like a Green New Deal dream. It paints a utopian picture of publicly-owned renewables, eco-brutalist social housing with rooftop solar panels, and socialized grocery stores. This democratic socialist vision for Ontario also includes the expansion of nuclear energy stations, operated by thousands of union members, generating enormous output without major greenhouse gas emissions. The ONDY policy book states:

ONDY adopted this policy position supporting the expansion of nuclear energy, which contrasts with the Ontario NDP’s own 2024 policy book, stating:

5.4.2. Nuclear Energy

BE IT RESOLVED that the Ontario NDP: Opposes further nuclear energy projects until such time as the safe disposal of wastes and the safety of the projects themselves can be assured and then only where a definite need for such projects can be clearly demonstrated that cannot be satisfied by non-fossil alternative sources in Ontario or through purchases of hydro-electric power from other jurisdictions in Canada;

Ontario’s labour unions agreed that this policy needs changing. In 2023, the Society of United Professionals, USW District 6, IBEW Local 353 and the Grey Bruce Labour Council put forward a resolution to support a “made-in-Canada nuclear supply chain” which was unanimously endorsed at the last Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) biennial convention. Despite unanimous support among labour and the ONDP’s youth-wing, however, vocal opposition to this policy has held.

For Ontario youth, climate change is a top concern and reducing greenhouse gas emissions through increased electrification to replace fossil fuels is necessary. This should include renewable energy, and the call from advocates to accelerate the increase in renewable energy generation is necessary, but renewables are not a panacea and still leave us far from the necessary baseload growth Ontario’s electricity grid needs, currently held up by hydro and nuclear energy. Even if Ontario tripled the amount of solar and wind projects, and included existing hydro, there would be massive gaps in the needed energy to decarbonize. The IESO’s 2022 ‘Pathways to Decarbonization’ report estimates only 657 MW of new hydro power to come online by 2050 in the best net zero scenario for Ontario. There is little room for expansion on the province’s hydroelectric capacity. More strikingly, the IESO estimates that a net zero Ontario by 2050 will require an additional 17,440 MW of new wind power and 5,741 MW of new solar power, while still requiring 8,947 MW of new nuclear generation to meet net zero.

Nuclear energy is, arguably, the only way to provide the expanded baseload energy Ontario needs without relying on fossil fuels. In Germany, the United States, and Japan where nuclear generation has not expanded and power stations have closed, increasing baseload energy requirements have been satisfied by increasing the use of high emissions fossil fuels. While the well-meaning environmentalist movements of the latter 20^th century sought to end nuclear power, they have inadvertently lent to increased reliance on the oil and gas industry while shutting down publicly-owned nuclear power. The Stephen Harper government, hardly a friend to the climate movement, in 2011 ended Canada’s public ownership of CANDU reactor technology, selling our intellectual property rights to SNC-Lavalin for a paltry $15 million to a company riddled in scandal while collecting record profits on the valuation of our public nuclear technology.

After decades of hesitation on nuclear energy, the Ontario NDP needs to be bold in its vision for an electricity grid that powers economic growth and delivers affordable hydro to all Ontarians. This means taking back public ownership of Ontario’s nuclear fleet to ensure refurbishment and expansion meets the needs of the working-class, not profit margins. While Premier Doug Ford’s government seeks the public-private partnership option in building Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), the price tag from this arrangement poses the risk of ballooning to serve the profit margins of the consortium participants. This half measure on nuclear also does not fulfill the energy needs of the province that would require the refurbishment or new construction of full-size CANDU reactors. Ontario used to publicly invest in nuclear energy, building out a grid that today is more than 90% free of fossil fuels. The Ontario NDP needs to again look to the legacy of public power to build Ontario’s energy needs—that includes public ownership of new generation and transmission of our public goods.

Expanded nuclear power for Ontario has received support from young members of the Ontario NDP because it helps us reach our climate goals by electrifying more of our economy, while public nuclear energy genuinely appeals to material class interests by making electricity plentiful and affordable for all.

Expanding public nuclear energy is also a union job creator, which the Ontario NDP’s policy book does not acknowledge. The policy book currently states that the party:

Would not implement policies leading to a reduction in employment in the nuclear industry unless and until employees to be displaced are guaranteed the opportunity for alternative employment at comparable wages through measures including fully paid retraining, relocation assistance, full compensation for losses in housing values, and pension portability.

This type of policy ought to be reserved for the oil and gas industry, not nuclear energy workers. The Canadian nuclear energy industry employs 89 000 workers, largely in Ontario, and is the most unionized part of the energy sector with a coverage rate of 84.8% according to one study.¹ This higher unionization rate is due in part to the historic public ownership and investment in nuclear energy. The largely private sector driven renewable energy industry in Ontario means unions cover only 13.3% of workers according to the same study who “have lower wages, lower pension coverage.” If the Ontario NDP wants to develop its renewable energy capacity, it must recognize that this needs government investment and public ownership, rather than being left to the market. A highly unionized workforce is already a given for nuclear power in Ontario, and the highly skilled workers that it comes with should be developed, not discarded to less skilled, less paid, and less unionized industries.

There are, of course, genuine concerns around nuclear energy. For instance, nuclear energy production creates radioactive waste products that must be dealt with safely. In Ontario, the storage of nuclear waste, currently piling up in on-site facilities at power stations, is being addressed collaboratively with First Nations. The Canadian Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) held tough conversations for more than a decade with First Nations communities whose lands in Northern Ontario, under the thick Canadian Shield, were found to be the best sites for ensuring the safe storage of nuclear material. The Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation (WLON), on whose territory was selected as one storage site, held democratic votes within the community to decide and consent to the project. According to WLON Chief Clayton Wetelainen:

WLON views our role as the potential host for Canada’s used nuclear fuel as one of the most important responsibilities of our time, We cannot ignore this challenge and allow it to become a burden for future generations. Our membership spoke with a clear voice in our willingness to decide that we have the bravery and courage to continue to the next phase of this project.

Decisions around nuclear energy must be made with the free, prior, and informed consent of Indigenous people on a nation-to-nation basis. It is with this practice that we can engage in nation building projects that engage Indigenous people, unlike the oil and gas pipeline projects that run roughshod over numerous nations.

Saskatchewan NDP MLA Aleana Young recently finished a tour of Ontario energy sites. Reflecting on her trip, she remarked, “I saw some of the nuclear waste in Ontario that’s been safely stored for over 70 years and when I talk to young people, they see storage of waste that would fit in a space the size of the Regina airport compared to pollution coming out of the tops of smokestacks.” Expanded nuclear power for Ontario has received support from young members of the Ontario NDP because it helps us reach our climate goals by electrifying more of our economy, while public nuclear energy genuinely appeals to material class interests by making electricity plentiful and affordable for all. If the Ontario NDP wants to start winning the planet we all need while gaining back the support of working-class voters we will need to do so, the party at this 2025 Convention will need to listen to the young working-class people who will inherit that planet.

Footnotes:

1. Social Analysis and Modelling Division, Morissette, R., & Qiu, H., Jobs in Electric Power Generation, Transmission, and Distribution And in Related Industries, 2012 to 2017 1–23 (2020). Ottawa, Ontario; Social Analysis and Modelling Division. ↩︎