After years of incremental policy steps, Canada now has its first-ever sector-wide Nuclear Energy Strategy. Unveiled by Energy and Natural Resources Minister, Tim Hodgson, on June 22, 2026, it spans the full nuclear value chain and sets out specific targets, timelines, and financing mechanisms for the next 15 to 30 years.
For engineers, this is one of the clearest signals about where Canada is building, hiring, and investing that we have seen in a generation.
What the Strategy Actually Contains
The Strategy is built around four pillars: enabling new domestic builds, asserting global export leadership, securing the uranium fuel cycle and waste management, and driving innovation in fission and fusion technologies.
The domestic build targets are specific. The federal government is aiming for up to ten new large-scale reactors by 2040, with two under construction by 2035. At least one reactor deployment outside Ontario, whether it be a large-scale or a Small Modular Reactor (SMR), is also targeted for 2035, as well as a Canadian microreactor demonstration led by the Department of National Defence with remote defence facilities as the initial use case.
On exports, the Strategy targets at least four new international CANDU markets by 2040 and engagement with six to ten new nuclear-entrant countries over 15 years. Notably, the Strategy extends beyond CANDU to explicitly include the AP1000 power plant and BWRX-300 reactor, positioning Canadian supply chains for participation in light-water reactor projects globally. Canadian-manufactured components and engineering services, not just Canadian reactor technology, are in scope.
The regulatory framework is also changing. The federal government has announced plans to make the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) the authority responsible for conducting impact assessments for all applicable nuclear projects under the Impact Assessment Act and has set a target of completing federal regulatory review within two years. Legislation to enact these reforms is expected this Fall.
The Strategy’s commitment to Indigenous equity participation is already moving from policy to practice. On June 23, the Williams Treaties First Nations announced a $700-million investment in Ontario Power Generation (OPG)‘s Darlington New Nuclear Project, described as the largest collective First Nations investment in nuclear generation in Canada’s history. The transaction is backed jointly by the federal Indigenous Loan Guarantee Program and Ontario’s Building Ontario Fund and gives seven Michi Saagiig and Chippewa Anishinaabeg Nations a meaningful ownership stake in the G7’s first commercial grid-scale SMR. It is a concrete early signal of what the Strategy’s Indigenous participation framework looks like in practice.
Why This Matters for the Engineering Profession
Canada’s electricity demand is projected to roughly double over the next 25 years and nuclear is central to the federal government’s plan for meeting that demand. Doubling grid capacity at that scale requires engineering labour, expertise, and leadership at a scale the profession has not seen in recent decades.
The numbers back this up. The nuclear sector already supports approximately 90,000 direct and indirect jobs in Canada, with 90 percent classified as high-skill roles. The Strategy explicitly targets doubling the size of Canada’s nuclear workforce to meet deployment needs, through investment in the Canadian Nuclear Learning Centre, support for academic and training programs, and coordination of professional development at Chalk River Laboratories.
The International Atomic Energy Agency projects that nuclear generating capacity could reach 2.5 times the current levels globally by 2050. The federal government is planning at that scale, and expects Canada’s engineering talent pipeline to keep pace.
The Strategy’s approach to export matters too. Reactor exports are not one-time transactions. They create multi-decade commercial relationships that span technical services, regulatory capacity-building, supply chain participation, and ongoing operational support. Every new international build Canada secures is a sustained source of engineering work.
On the ground, construction at Darlington is already underway. In April, the project team placed the Basemat module — the close to 2.1-million-pound foundation of the reactor building — 35 metres below ground. Preparation is now underway to bore a 3.4-kilometre condenser cooling water tunnel. The first BWRX-300 unit will generate 300 megawatts when operational. OPG plans to build three additional units at the site, for a combined output capable of powering approximately 1.2 million homes.
A Gap That Will Require Engineering Solutions
One detail in the Strategy that deserves more attention than it has received: Canada’s last heavy water production facilities closed in the 1990s. The Strategy identifies this explicitly as a supply chain gap that must be addressed to support a CANDU build-out, but does not yet propose specific funded solutions. Rebuilding that capability is an engineering challenge as much as a policy one.
The Strategy also flags gaps in heavy forgings and nuclear-grade alloy materials. These are areas where Canadian engineering expertise will be tested and where investment in talent and industrial capacity will need to accelerate.
The Isotope and Innovation Opportunity
One area of the Strategy that often gets overlooked in the reactor-focused coverage is medical and industrial isotopes. The global nuclear medicine market was valued at approximately $12.6 billion in 2023, with projected annual growth of around 15 percent through 2026, according to figures cited in the Strategy. Canada has been a historical leader in isotope production but captures only a fraction of the downstream value because processing, packaging, and high-value conversion largely happen offshore.
The Strategy commits to developing a comprehensive radioisotope strategy to address this, with a goal of growing Canada’s share of the global medical isotope market by at least 10 percent. For engineers working in biomedical, chemical, nuclear, and process engineering, this is a direct opportunity signal.
Beyond medical isotopes, non-medical isotopes support industries representing over $770 billion of Canada’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), according to the Strategy. Applications in quantum computing and fusion energy are identified as growth areas.
On fusion specifically, Canada holds a structural advantage worth understanding. Decades of CANDU operation have made Canada a global leader in tritium production, handling, and supply. UNITY-2 at Chalk River is described as the world’s first fully integrated deuterium-tritium fusion fuel cycle test facility. Canada’s fusion strategy is not about building a reactor; it is about being indispensable to the fuel cycle as commercial fusion develops globally.
What the Strategy Does Not Yet Resolve
OSPE believes it is important to read this Strategy critically.
The Strategy does not include a dedicated new funding envelope. A draft policy on federal financing of new nuclear power projects is due by April 2027. New financing instruments, including the specifics of loan guarantees, green bonds, and Canada Infrastructure Bank participation, will not be defined until then. Engineers and firms planning around this Strategy should factor that timeline into their expectations.
The Strategy is also explicit that electricity generation remains under provincial and territorial jurisdiction. Federal action is framed as “complementary and enabling,” not directive. The pace of build-out will depend heavily on provincial decisions in Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and New Brunswick, all of which are at different stages of their own nuclear roadmaps.
OSPE’s Position
OSPE has been engaged with nuclear policy, energy security, and engineering workforce development for years. We see this Strategy as a direct confirmation of what we have been telling government: a resilient energy future requires sustained, serious investment in the engineering profession and in the people who design, certify, build, and operate these systems.
The Strategy’s fleet-based procurement model, its alignment with the Major Projects Office and the Building Canada Act, and its “Team Canada” export framework all point in a direction OSPE has advocated for: faster project delivery, coordinated federal leadership, and recognition of engineering as foundational to Canada’s economic sovereignty.
We will be tracking the development of the federal financing policy, the proposed regulatory reforms expected this Fall, and the operationalization of the fleet-based model. We will bring engineering voices into those conversations.
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