Canada may finally be ready to build the east-west electricity grid advocates have called for decades. Amid rising energy costs and economic uncertainty, the timing could not be better.

The newly announced National Energy Corridor Partnership — initiated by Ontario and including nine provinces and territories — aims to strengthen transmission connections across the country. It puts into view a nation-building project that could move clean electricity across provincial borders much as pipelines move oil and gas today.

If we get this right, this grid could become the pipeline of the future. 

It could carry renewable energy coast-to-coast, helping meet climate goals while strengthening the economy with made-in-Canada materials, creating jobs and reducing reliance on the United States.

But its success hinges on two fundamental questions: what kind of “clean” energy will power it, and who will build, own and benefit from it? 

As conversations about the grid unfold, we must consider the implications of the energy technologies at hand — from communities displaced by megadams, to those facing the generational impacts of nuclear waste.

Across the country, Indigenous communities are already leaders in clean energy development. From solar arrays to wind projects and battery storage, First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities are investing in renewable power that creates local jobs, generates long-term........

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