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Ontario will import power from the United States this winter, the province’s independent electricity operator has announced, just a few months after Premier Doug Ford threatened to cut exports to the U.S. amid the ongoing trade war.
The contract will help secure additional short-term capacity for the winter, while “facility maintenance” takes place, the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) said in an Oct. 1 news release about the deal.
The six month contract with U.S. based Alpha Generation for 600 megawatts will start on Nov. 1, IESO said.
While IESO did not detail the maintenance work taking place, the province began a multi-year refurbishment project at the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station in September.
The contract undercuts recent statements by the Ford government, according to Lewis Krashinsky, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University who studies U.S.-Canada politics.
IESO is an independent body that monitors the province’s electric grid and is not associated with the provincial government. Despite that, Krashinsky said the contract will “undercut” Ford’s position on using electricity as a bargaining chip with the U.S.
Ontario is exporting seven time more electricity to neighbouring jurisdictions than it did in 2025, said the IESO in an emailed statement. (Colin Butler/CBC)
“For all the tough talk, I think it doesn’t look at all that good for Doug Ford,” he said.
In August, Ford said he was willing to cut off electricity and critical minerals to the U.S. as the trade war drags on. Ontario sends power to about 1.5 million people in Michigan, New York and Minnesota.
“The best [Ford] can hope for is that this story doesn’t hit too many American outlets,” Krashinsky said.
“[If it reaches] the ears of senior American leaders, they’re going to just say, ‘Great, we’re cancelling this contract or we’re not taking you seriously, because you still need our energy too.'”
Contract part of ‘normal’ planning: IESO
Despite the new contract, Ontario is a “net-exporter of power,” IESO said in an emailed statement Friday. IESO’s mandate is to ensure a reliable and affordable supply of electricity for Ontarians, it said.
Ontario is exporting seven times more electricity to neighbouring jurisdictions, such as Quebec and New York, than it imported in 2025, IESO said.
The Alpha Generation contract is a part of “normal system planning” to secure additional short-term capacity as a way to manage “system-wide maintenance needs” and to cover peak demand over the winter months, IESO said.
CBC News asked Alpha Generation for more information on the deal.
The province did not respond Friday to questions on the contract, referring CBC News to IESO.
Construction began today on a provincial project to upgrade Pickering’s nuclear plant, which will include the refurbishment of four nuclear reactors. As CBC’s Rochelle Raveendran explains, the government says the project will create thousands of jobs, but didn’t say whether it will affect household energy bills.
Province needs to invest in clean energy: expert
Keith Brooks, programs director for advocacy group Environmental Defence Canada, argues the province could have avoided importing electricity from the U.S. entirely by shifting to more clean energy sources in the past few years.
The Ford government cancelled several clean energy projects and removed the requirement to create a long-term energy plan when they first came into power, Brooks said.
“The government has mismanaged this file,” he said, adding the province has become overly reliant on nuclear and gas systems that are expensive to maintain and have remained active “much longer than originally intended.”
“The reality is we’ve been burning more and more gas in Ontario because we haven’t been building clean energy,” he added.
In the summer of 2025, the Ford government announced the province’s first-ever integrated energy plan, which seeks to secure energy for “generations to come,” according to a news release from June 12, 2025. The plan includes a commitment to nuclear energy, with the goal of reaching 99 per cent zero-emissions electricity by 2050.
Ford’s threats on withholding energy are “idle,” Brooks said, given the U.S. provides most of the gas Ontario uses for power.
“[The U.S.] could have shut off the gas, which meant we couldn’t even turn our own lights on, let alone sell electricity to them,” he said.
The solution is to invest more in clean energy, including wind and solar, Brooks said. Homegrown clean energy wins “hands down” for Brooks.
“We don’t need to rely upon the U.S. to give us the gas nor the electricity. We can generate it here ourselves,” he said.
