Why the merger of Emera and Canadian Utilities makes sense for Canada

Canada is having a moment.

Over the past year, the national conversation has shifted from whether we can build big things to how quickly we can get them done. Prime Minister Mark Carney has put investment and nation-building projects at the centre of the agenda. Ottawa has established a Major Projects Office and last month’s Canada Investment Summit brought global investors to Toronto to hear the case for Canada.

The world is paying attention. Now we have to deliver.

Ultimately, Canada’s success won’t be measured by what we announce. It will be measured by what we build.

And almost everything we need to build depends on energy. Critical minerals processing, new housing, advanced manufacturing, defence production, ports, transit and LNG export terminals all require reliable energy. Utilities aren’t on the sidelines of the nation-building agenda. We are its foundation.

Canada’s electricity system will have to grow at a pace not seen in generations. The federal government’s new electricity strategy, Powering Canada Strong, says demand is expected to double by 2050, requiring more than $1 trillion in investment.

Interprovincial transmission capacity may need to increase by as much as 70 per cent.

Natural gas is an important part of the picture too, serving millions of Canadian homes and businesses and increasingly supporting new power generation and industrial growth. Nowhere is that growth more visible than in Alberta.

Taken together, the scale of the energy build ahead is enormous. And we need to start planning and building much of it now.

Both are strong companies today. Together, we’ll have greater financial strength, operating expertise and investment capacity to take on opportunities neither company could pursue as effectively alone. The combined company will have approximately $72 billion in enterprise value, a $45-billion rate base, six million customers and a $32-billion capital plan through 2030. And we see opportunities to invest beyond that plan as energy demand and infrastructure needs continue to grow in markets like Alberta and Florida.

Bigger, on its own, isn’t necessarily better. What matters is what greater scale allows us to do.

It means more capacity to fund major projects, deep expertise across electricity and natural gas, and greater ability to manage constrained global supply chains. And it brings together talented teams who know how to safely take complicated projects from an idea to infrastructure that customers can depend on for decades.

Both companies have done it before.

Emera built the Maritime Link, connecting Newfoundland to the North American grid for the first time and strengthening regional reliability and access to clean energy. Canadian Utilities built the Fort McMurray West Line, Canada’s longest 500-kilovolt transmission line, through northern Alberta’s boreal forest.

Canada needs more infrastructure like that: projects that connect regions, strengthen energy systems and get energy where it is needed. Transmission is no different from roads and pipelines. It connects our economy and enables growth.

How we build matters as much as what we build. Major projects require governments, regulators, communities, Indigenous Nations and industry to work together. And affordability has to remain front and centre. Whether we’re investing in electricity or natural gas infrastructure, the goal is the same: reliable energy for customers and durable, long-term value for investors.

We’ve seen what the right combination can do. A decade ago, Emera’s investment in TECO, headquartered in Florida, transformed our business. Since then, we’ve continued to invest in the energy systems needed to support one of North America’s strongest growth markets. Today, this combination builds on that experience, bringing together our opportunities in Florida with Canadian Utilities’ opportunities in Alberta and opening the door to further investment and growth.

Canada has the resources, talent and ambition. We increasingly have the policy direction too. Now we have to provide the capability and capacity to execute. We have to build.

That’s the opportunity in front of Canada. And it’s why we’re bringing these two companies together.

Scott Balfour is chief executive of Emera Inc.