Canadian at our Core: Advancing Nuclear Innovation For Canada’s Bright Energy Future

April 8, 2026

The Empire Club of Canada Presents

Canadian at our Core: Advancing Nuclear Innovation For Canada’s Bright Energy Future

Chairperson: Sarah Letersky, Secretary, Empire Club of Canada; Partner, National Health Practice Lead, Rubicon Strategy

Moderator
Laryssa Waler, Founder & CEO, Henley Strategies

Distinguished Guest Speaker
Eric Chassard, President & CEO, Bruce Power

Head Table Guests
Tim Gitzel, CEO, Cameco
Sandy Taylor, President & CEO, Candu Energy

Welcome Address by Sarah Letersky, Secretary, Empire Club of Canada; Partner, National Health Practice Lead, Rubicon Strategy
I’m Sarah Letersky, Secretary of the Board at the Empire Club, and I am so pleased to be your host for today’s event.

To formally begin, I want to acknowledge that we are gathering on the Traditional and Treaty Lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the homeland of the Anishinaabe, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat Peoples. I encourage you all to learn more about the Traditional Territory on which you work and live.

Today’s event would not be possible without the generous support of our sponsors. The Empire Club is a non-profit organization, and our sponsors generously support the club, and make these events possible, and complimentary for our online viewers to attend. So, please join me in thanking our Lead Sponsors, Candu Energy and Cameco. Thank you to our VIP Reception Sponsors, AECON, LiUNA, McCarthy Tétrault, RBC Capital Markets, PwC, and Society of United Professionals. And to our Supporting Sponsors, BMO, the Canadian Union of Skilled Workers, Kinectrics, and Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council of Ontario. We are also deeply appreciative of the ongoing support of our Lead Season Sponsors, Bruce Power, Hydro One National Bank Capital Markets, and our VIP Reception Season Sponsors, Ellis Don, McKinsey & Company, the Ontario Road Builders Association, and Waste Connections of Canada. And finally, thank you to our Media Partner, Toronto Star, and our AV Partner, Bespoke Audio Visual.

Okay. Sure. If you do have questions for the speakers, please scan the QR code found on the program or through the Q&A function, if you’re online. For those, if you are online, if you require assistance, you can use the chat feature.

Now, this is a real pleasure for me to be hosting today’s event. I see many leaders here from the business, government, and labour community, and that’s no surprise. For more than 120 years, this stage has been where leaders gather to discuss and consider our path as a nation and as citizens. And within Canada, Ontario, of course, plays a real key role within our country’s economic future. Within Ontario, our energy infrastructure is key to our success. And within our energy infrastructure, nuclear energy plays the largest role in building and continuing to build an energy system that is strong, resilient, and as we will hear today, independent.

Now, if this conversation sounds at all familiar, it’s because the issue of energy independence has been discussed here before in many different ways. Back in 1906, our club hosted a discussion on the hydroelectric power question. Back then, the concern was ending a reliance on American coal to provide a stable basis for industries for all time to come. And today, the context and technology has changed, but the fundamental question has not. How do we ensure our energy security and economic sovereignty, as we move deeper into this century?

It comes down, I believe, to investing in our capacity and in ourselves. And as today’s keynote speaker, Eric Chassard, has said, if you want sustainable, full-time economy, you need full-time power. And that’s the bottom line. In an economy increasingly defined by data and hungry for electrification, we are at risk of businesses picking up and leaving our province, and our country, if we cannot power them. That’s why the decisions that we make on nuclear capacity and life extension of our plants are so important. It is not only key to how we will power growth and compete globally, it’s also key to having a healthy workforce to do so.

In my day job at Rubicon Strategy, I work with the health and life sciences sectors, and I see the direct line between our nuclear infrastructure and our healthcare systems. Because world-leading cancer-treating medical isotopes produced right here in Ontario with the partnership of Bruce Power would not be possible without our nuclear industry. But today, we will explore how we move faster to secure our economic future, develop full-time power, and do so while building meaningful partnerships with Indigenous communities.

So we have a lot of ground to cover, and it is now my pleasure to invite Tim Gitzel, CEO of Cameco, to start us off with opening remarks and to introduce our keynote speaker. As a global leader in uranium production and a primary fuel supplier for Ontario’s nuclear reactors, Cameco is a cornerstone of our energy security. We are grateful for their generous sponsorship of today’s event and for their partnership in building a bright energy future for our province. Please join me, in welcoming Tim to the stage.

Opening Remarks by Tim Gitzel, CEO, Cameco
Well, thank you very much, Sarah, for that very kind introduction. It’s great to be here with all of you at the, at the Empire Club, with the Empire Club today. [Remarks in French]. Nice to see so many friends and colleagues from the nuclear industry, I was sitting there with Sandy Taylor from Candu Energy, our co-sponsor, and I want to thank them for stepping up to co-sponsor today. We have the chair of our board who is with us today, Catherine Gicnac, and Catherine, thanks for joining the Cameco team here today. The Cameco team here, not only to support our good friend, Eric Chasseard and Bruce Power, but really, just to support the entire Canadian nuclear workforce, the industry, the companies. We are a power in the world. We really are, the Canadian nuclear companies. We’re making our mark in the world, and we’re gonna do even more as we go forward. So, thanks everybody for being here.

Cameco, you may or may not know us. We have the world’s largest high grade mines, out in Saskatchewan, two of them, where we supply about probably 25% of the world production of uranium, uranium fuel for nuclear reactors. We send that material over to Blind River, Ontario, where we have a refinery, and then it gets refined, sent to Port Hope and Coburg—some of my colleagues are here—where we convert it into nuclear fuel, and that fuel is used here in Canada by companies like Bruce Power, but we send it around the world to 20 different countries around the world. We do that right here in Canada. So, we’re very proud of that, and that’s been really the Cameco story over the last 40 years.

But a few years ago, we said we want to be more than that. We want to do more. We don’t want to just supply fuel, we want to be part of the nuclear gross story around the world. So, about two years ago, along with our partner Brookfield, we went out and purchased what we believe is the very best Generation III+ technology, the AP1000 reactor technology of Westinghouse. And that has actually worked out really well for us. It’s a technology that’s been built already that’s ready to go, and it’s now owned by Canadians. So, now we have, we try to build our own demand. We said if we build reactors, Cameco can fuel them for the 80 to 100 years that they’re going to run. And so, that’s what we provide here in Canada and around the world for Cameco.

So, as we travel around the world, one of the things we’re super proud of is Ontario, and just the nuclear story in Ontario. It’s a story we tell everywhere. It’s probably the best nuclear success story you’ll find around the world. Count the lights up here, folks. Six out of ten of them are fired by nuclear power, and a lot of them by Eric’s plants out at Bruce. That’s a good story. And I can tell you that none of this would happen without strong leadership in the nuclear sector. And today, you’re going to hear from one of the very best. You can hear from Eric Chassard. Eric, as everyone knows, is president and CEO of Bruce Power. Eight nuclear units up in the Bruce Peninsula, 6,500 megawatts of electricity, not only for the province of Ontario, but beyond. And in the process, Eric, of successfully extending the lives of all the units at the Bruce site, bringing safe, clean, reliable, and affordable energy to Ontario and its neighbours, now and for many, many years into the future.

And even more exciting is the new-build plan, Site C, where Eric and Bruce have plans for the first new large nuclear in Canada in decades. And so, we’re watching and cheering for them, as they move along. I’ve known Eric for a long time, over 20 years. We worked together at Areva back in the 2000’s. Eric was always the go-to guy. The guy that was sent into different countries to solve what seemed to be really insurmountable problems around the world in nuclear—I can think of France and China and Finland, just to name a few that Eric’s been involved in. I sit on the board at the World Nuclear Association in London. When we talk about the best operators in the world and the best leadership in the world, inevitably, inevitably, Eric Chassard’s name comes up. His international experience is unparalleled. His ability to deliver major projects the same. Ontario is lucky to have him, and I’m proud to call him a colleague and friend. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Eric Chassard.

[Video is shown]

Eric Chassard, President & CEO, Bruce Power
Bonjour a tous. [Remarks in French]. What an exciting time, right? What an exciting time to be living in Canada, to be living in Ontario, to be in the energy business. It’s just amazing. By the demand for clean, reliable, 24/7, and affordable energy has never been so high, right? If you’ve been in this business for a long time—well, it’s good to be young. It’s good to be, to have a lot of time in front of us, who are going to do great things, right? The future is really bright. And for Bruce Power, each time we are spending $1, in fact, we are spending 95 cents in Canada. It’s a very deliberate strategy.

Just a question for you, because I’m not going to be the only one talking, right, this afternoon. So, what is the impact, do you think, for Bruce Power from the war in Iran? Skyrocketing, oil, gas, prices, and so on. What’s the impact on us? Huge, medium, small, what do you think? Zero. Yeah. We’re going to be impacted by inflation, like everybody, and so on. No impact. Doesn’t mean we like it, right? It’s very sad. But we’re not impacted. So, in a world that is very volatile, that is very uncertain, that is full of anxiety, why are we there? We just bring stability. We just bring certainty.

Why are we able to do this? Because we’ve shaped a supply chain here in Canada. 95% of what we spend, we spend it in Canada. It’s been a very, very deliberate strategy for us. In fact, before, our feeders, for example, were manufactured in South Korea. We developed a partnership, a 10-year contract with BWXT, and now all our feeders are coming from Cambridge. Oil prices are increasing, yeah. And so, right, it’s much cheaper than flying our feeders from South Korea. And I’m pretty sure John from BWXT is not even going to charge us for this, right? So, that’s been a very deliberate strategy. Same thing with Northern Transformer. Before, they were not manufacturing transformers. We put them in business, right? We gave them a 10-year contract, and now, they are able to deliver all our transformers, which is a big part of our asset management contract to extend the life of our unit, and it’s coming from [Indiscernible], right, for close to volume. And before, it was manufactured in the US. So, very, very deliberate strategy to spend 95% of all what we are spending in Canada, and we are going to do the same for new build. When we build Bruce C, and whatever the technology, we’re going to spend 95% of the investment of what we are spending in Canada. I get lots of question about it. I’m not going to answer it. I will wait for you to ask for it.

So, it’s a lot of jobs, right? We are doing, we are operating eight units. We have two right now in life extension. So, just to simplify, what is life extension? Because we talk a lot about MCR, the main component replacement. In fact, we are spending more on the other stuff, all the asset management. So, just to give you a very simple picture, when we do a life extension at Bruce Power, we just keep the structure, we keep the walls, we keep the foundation, we cut the roof, and we replace everything inside. In fact, even under. Because we change all the buried piping, cables, and so on. So, when folks are asking me, are you worried about new build? Well, not really. Because we are doing it already, right? We just need to do the structure, and keep going.

So, we have 5,000 highly skilled workers, and some of their business managers are in their rooms. Thanks a lot, because your folks are doing the work. Why? We love to talk about technology, we love to talk about project management, and so on. At the end of the day, it’s all about people. And it’s a lot of jobs. It’s a lot of very good jobs. And it’s jobs that will stay at least until 2033, and after. Because right now, we are looking at large new build. Well, keep in mind what I just said, right? We keep the structure, we’ve got the foundation, and we do all the mechanical, electrical, HVAC work with 5,000 highly skilled people. Well, guess what? What we want to do with Bruce C is start building the structure before we ramp down MCR, and just move these highly skilled workers in the new house, and they keep going. So, we are talking jobs until 2045. Give me another industry who is doing this. The safest place to work. Huge respect, if you come on site, you will see me discussing with everybody. There is only one team at Bruce Power, right, and pretty well paid jobs. That’s what we offer. So, we are delivering much more than electricity. And the best news is coming.

So, we are investing in tomorrow. We are spending $3 billion every year in our life extension for all our units. So, Unit 6 was brought back online September 2023, on budget, ahead of schedule. And in fact, that’s been the best operating Candu in the world. So, that speaks volumes, also, about the quality of the construction that the building trades of Ontario are delivering in our station. Right? Amazing work. More than 99% capacity factor. Ask your colleagues who are in solar or wind, what is their capacity factor? And we keep going, right? So, the trick is, I get a lot that, hey, you’ve done one unit, Unit 3 is ahead of schedule, on budget, in fact, it’s just been refueled. It’s a great success story, also, and we are looking forward to going back on the grid. So, you’ve done two, so it’s a given, right? It’s a walk in the park now. Well, not exactly. Because in our contract, we are very lucky, very fortunate to have a long-term contract. We have a contract with the IESO up to 2064, right? So, that gives us some certainty, some stability, so that we can give our partners long-term contract and they can invest. That’s why we’ve been able to develop the supply chain in Canada.

But at the same time, each time we do one unit after another, we have to reduce cost, and we have to reduce schedule from six to three to four. By how much? You have an idea? Six to three. Okay, how much? We reduce the cost by 30%, three zero, and schedule by 15%. And from three to four, we’re done? Well, not exactly. We have to reduce by an additional 30%, and an additional 15%. You see, it happens by magic. Just by me waving my hands in my office. Well, not really, right? So, the first thing is, once you’ve done things once or twice, well, you’re better at it, right? So, the partnership we have with our friends from the unions is extremely important in this success. As I said, it’s all about people. So, keeping retaining our high-skilled friends is critical in our strategy.

And then, when you’re doing this, you need to bring some step changes, right? Because continuous improvement is going to bring you up to a certain point. But when you have to save so much money, you need to bring a step change, a breakthrough. And that’s when partnering with ATS from Cambridge, we brought the 6-axis robots, who have been reassembling our Unit 3 reactor. So, the first time we came up with this idea, everybody told us we were crazy. That it was impossible. In fact, we really like it. If you hear impossible, just bring it to us. We love this stuff. Yeah. It would take six years to develop where we did it in two years. In fact, ATS did it with our team, but also with the highly skilled trades. They were part of the development. So, these 6-axis robots have been reassembling Unit 3. And it’s been a great success. The good news is that when you introduce this type of breakthrough technology, well, you get lots of ideas. And it’s just the beginning of another cycle of improvement, right?

So, innovation is really key in what we are doing. But we need to keep in mind that we’ve only done 1.8, where we still have four to go. In fact, we have six to go. Because we also want to demonstrate that we can refurb our Candu units one more time. Unit 1 and 2 have been refurbished. We want to do it again. And we want to demonstrate that the structure is still good, and that we can do it again. So, instead of extending our units by 40 years, we’re going to extend them by 80 years, eight zero. So, you see what we are talking about? We are talking generations, right? We are talking, it’s a game changer. We are going to have this clean, reliable, affordable generation for our kids, for our grandkids.

What is our challenge? There is one key difference between gas, oil, fire plant, and nuclear power plant. Who’s going to tell me? Cost structure. Gas fire plant, 80% of your cost, eight zero, is coming from fuel, gas. Sometimes it’s cheap, sometimes it’s very expensive. Sometimes you have it, other time you don’t. Nuclear, the other way around: 80% of your cost is coming from your project. It’s coming from your capex. So, what we are doing today, our ability to deliver very large, complex projects safely with quality on time and cheap is paving the way for cheap electricity for the next generation that will attract manufacturing, that will attract industries, that will allow life, and the quality of life we are all enjoying. That’s what you are doing today at Bruce Power. You are ensuring a reliable access to cheap energy for the next 80 years. So, that’s our duty. That’s the huge responsibility we’ve got. When we are doing a project, we must do it as cheap as possible. Because if you have a bad asset, if your 80% is not right, well, you’ve got the burden, and you can’t do anything about it. Because you’re not going to play on the 20%. Yeah, we have a contract up to 2040 with our friend Tim Gitzel, but he’s not going to reduce the price of uranium to offset this. So, you’re stuck with it. So, that’s why our duty, our responsibility is huge. So, we need to make sure we don’t become complacent, and we don’t take it for granted. We need to keep driving innovation.

Bruce C. We are looking at, it’s an option. It’s not decided. So, to add 4800 megawatt on site. I got lots of question. Why don’t you build an SMR? Well, the Bruce site is one of the best in the world. And I can tell you, I’ve worked in 13 different countries doing lots of different projects. Very low seismic, fresh water, the best people in the world. That’s one of the best sites in the world. You want to maximize power density. You want to put there as big as possible. And it’s very well positioned, with all the transmission, and so on. We have 200 megawatt of transmission available already. So, it’s in a very, very good spot to deliver electricity to the GTA, but also source of Ontario. Lots of jobs, lots of GDPs, right? I let you look at the numbers. It’s a B. Yes, it’s a B. It’s billions, right? That’s what we are talking. So, it’s a game changer. When we talk a lot, we see this in the newspapers, and so on, folks talking about generational project. Well, that’s one. That’s a big one. But we need to make sure we do it right, right? 80% of the cost of the project will drive the price of electricity for our kids and our grandkids.

So, what we are looking right now, we are looking at all the available technology. And we are going to apply, in fact, the same secret source, the same recipe, is that we never, ever, ever start construction before all the design is complete, complete. Issued for construction in a consistent configuration, with a full safety case consistent with the design. You’re not going to see Bruce Power putting one shovel in the ground until the product is fully designed. Over my dead body. My job was to turn around that project for seven years. It’s not the best years of my life. So, I much prefer doing them right from the beginning. And that’s what we’re going to do with Bruce C.

At the same time, we are in the federal impact assessment. So, we’re halfway, I hope, with completion by end of 2027. And we are fully committed to have a very strong partnership and communication with the First Nations, the Saugeen Ojibwe Nation, they are the right-holder of the land, these best sites in the world. And we are going to demonstrate and define what a new, large project is, in the spirit of true Reconciliation. We still have to invent it. It’s difficult. It requires lots of communication. But we are fully committed to this partnership.

Somebody is interested in how we are going to spend 95% of the cost on new build, whatever the technology. No? Yes. Okay. So, when you look at new build, first in Canada, we are very fortunate. We have two suppliers of large new build reactors. We’ve got Candu, and we’ve got Westinghouse. If you look at a large new build reactor, 25% of the cost is the nuclear island. So, everybody gets excited about the nuclear technology, and so on. In fact, it’s only—well, it’s expensive—but it’s 25% of the cost. So, what is the breakdown of a ready, ready product in nuclear? Meaning, all the engineering has been done. You just need to do the site specifics, the project management, and so on. And some support for field engineering, 10% of the cost. 55% of the cost is construction. Concrete, rebars, mechanical, electrical, HVAC. Our friends from the boilermakers, [Indiscernible], and so on, they will take care of this. Obviously, it’s going to be in Canada. 35% of it is procurement. Well, we’ve just demonstrated with our Life Extension Program that we can qualify, develop the supply chain in Canada. In fact, we already have a pretty robust, well-developed supply chain. Supply chain where, in fact, we don’t call them suppliers. They are partners because we gave them contract for 10, 15 years. In fact, they are friends, right? And most of them are in this room.

So, we already have this. We can build on this. So, if you think about it, what’s remaining? Well, it’s things that don’t exist in Canada yet. Like, we cannot procure a turbine in Canada. Well, whatever the nuclear island technology, a turbine is a turbine. Isotope, that’s certainly our best story. So, we’ve doubled our production of isotopes. So, last year, when I talked, we are just starting the production of Lutetium. We’ve doubled the production of Lutetium. It’s a huge success. Patients around the world rely on us, in fact, to help them fight cancer, mainly prostate cancer, lung cancer, and still in development for other treatment. We’ve doubled our production of Cobalt with high-specific activity to sterilize all the equipment. You know the things you see in a blue package that your doctor or a dentist is opening? Well, 80% chance that it’s been sterilized by Cobalt produced at Bruce Power.

And it’s just the beginning, just the beginning. We are just submitting a license application to the CNSC to have what we call a bonding case. Because right now in the regulation, each time a researcher has an idea to irradiate a new isotope to test it for a new type of cancer, we need to apply for a license amendment. It takes forever. We’re going to have a bonding case, where in fact, we can put anything in the reactor. Almost. So, what does this mean? There is a huge backlog of isotopes that the researchers want to test. We’re going to accelerate this. Before, they had to go to a research reactor. Just think about it like they have a small flame, like when you’re camping. You’re trying to cook something. Well, for us, we have the sun. So, when they were trying to do that would take two years, we do it in one week. So, we are going to be able to accelerate this backlog and get through it. And guess what? The more you test, the more you find.

So, we are very proud of the isotope. We are even prouder of the way we are doing it. So, end of 2025, we announced an investment from Saugeen Ojibwe Nation of $250 million in our isotope business, fully supported by Building Ontario Fund, and the Indigenous support that has been created by Ontario to support financing for First Nation opportunities. In fact, they’ve been working amazingly fast. What would take years, they’ve been able to support this $250 million investment in months. So, I really want to thank them. TD Bank also was instrumental to support this deal. That’s the biggest deal between a private entity and a First Nation that happened in Ontario using this new financing scheme. And it makes a difference today. You see lots of announcements for First Nation investments, and so on, that will—and they will get the benefits. They will get money in 10 years, once the project is built, and so on. When do you think they get the first cheque? Now, in 2026. So, that’s a game changer that’s going to bring lots of benefit to the community, and also that’s going to enable them to invest in much needed infrastructure. So, we are extremely proud of this. And we want to keep building on this partnership, and the relationship we are setting up through the isotope business.

Powering the future. You see lots of faces in this. That’s the beauty of our business. It’s all about people. We talk a lot about robots, about technology, and so on. At the end of the day, it’s all about people. Folks ask me, hey, do you like your job? I love my job. You know the best part of my job? Yeah, I do my CEO stuff in my office, or in meetings, and so on. But every day, for half an hour, one hour, I go in the station. And I talk to people, operators, construction workers, and so on, and that’s amazing. In fact, that’s how I know exactly what’s going on. But people are amazing. I think we take it for granted. The people we have on site, your people are just amazing to work with. They are just good people.

So, the future is nuclear, right? It’s very bright. I mean, everybody wants clean, reliable, affordable. Everybody is talking about nuclear. You see Amazon. You see Meta. All the data centres, they want nuclear energy. Which is a risk, also—not really in Ontario, because it’s very well managed by the IESO. At the same time, we should not take this for granted. We need to earn the right of building nuclear. You’ll remember what I said, 80% of the price of electricity will come by how well or cheap we will be able to manage our project. It’s a huge responsibility. So, my ask for all of us is bring your innovation. Each time you hear somebody telling you it’s impossible and so on, come to us.

I’m going to just to give you another example—in fact, two. When we had Unit 3 to refurb, the one we just refueled and we were restarting in a couple of months, we had a huge dose rate stemming from construction, and so on. I’m not going to get there. To the point, we would not be able to refurb to extend the life of this unit. We would have to shut down the unit, because the dose rate was just too high. And we tried lots of different things like bringing filters, laser ablation, and so on. Did not work. Just 5%, 10%. We needed to remove more than 60%. So, we developed, with partners—in fact, with Framatome, with Kinectrics, with Fermi, and all of the building trades—we developed a chemical decontamination. A process was existing in Germany, but never used for reactors that we would restart; just decommissioning. When we came to them, they told us, well, you need at least 6 years to develop it—well we had 20 months. Well, guess what? It happened. And we were able to reduce by 80% the dose rate of Unit 3, and that’s why we were able to secure this unit for the next 40 years to deliver affordable electricity to Ontario.

All these ideas don’t come from executives. Workers are very, very good ideas. One of the best ideas, in fact, we’ve been implementing to defuel the reactor is what we call the flow restrictors. So, what is that? In fact, everybody has been defueling Candu reactors, first with the existing fueling machine, and after another automation, we call it [Indiscernible] at Bruce Power, that we were not able to use the fuelling machine all along to remove all the 5,760 bundles inside the reactor. In fact, one chief manager came by, and said, hey, why don’t we use the fuelling machine for, to remove all the fuel bundles? So, everybody was laughing at him. Like, it’s because you don’t have enough flow, right? When you open your channel, all the flow is going through the empty channel, you don’t cool your spent fuel. And he said, what about putting a cap there so that we direct the flow to the one we want to refuel? And then the team came together, reactor safety, and so on. In fact, they built the case. What’s the outcome? 46 days to defuel Unit 6, 24 days to defuel Unit 4, 25 days of generation, 2 million a day. That’s a good idea. [Indiscernible]. So, if you have this type of ideas, just come to us.

So, who is the best in the world at building large nuclear reactors? Not France, not the UK, not the US. No? China. China. How long to build an AP1000 in China? The 11 they are building right now. 56 months, five-six, 4 billion Canadian. Why are they so good? Because they kept at it. And they’ve been able to industrialize their volume in front of them. They’ve been able to industrialize the supply chain.

So, I’ve done this in 13 different countries. And I’m going to leave you, and I’m going to conclude there, with one very strong conviction. If there is one country, one team in the world, in the Western countries, able to match this performance, it’s Team Canada. It’s the team in this room. Because when we work together, we are unstoppable. So, let’s do it. Let’s power the future together. Thank you.

Sarah Letersky
Thank you, Eric. That perspective helps us see the big picture of what energy independence looks like for our province. Thank you. Your commitment to ensuring our country remains a global leader in clean energy and lifesaving innovation is exactly the kind of leadership that this moment demands. We look forward to hearing more in conversation. And to guide our discussion, we have a moderator who, much like our keynote speaker, knows how to navigate complex systems, and lead through high-stakes change. I am pleased to welcome a good friend, Laryssa Waler, founder and CEO of Henley Strategies. Laryssa has advised leaders at the highest level of business and government, including serving as Executive Director of Communications to Ontario Premier Doug Ford. A frequent political commentator, she also recently led media operations for the historic visit of Pope Francis to Canada, serving as a spokesperson on matters related to Indigenous Reconciliation. Laryssa, thank you for being here.

Eric Chassard
How are you doing?

Laryssa Waler, Founder & CEO, Henley Strategies
I’m good. How are you?

Eric Chassard
Very good.

[Remarks in French]

Laryssa Waler
That’s all the French we’re going to do today. But I am very, very pleased to be here with you today. And I come to a lot of these, and I think everybody in this room comes to a lot of these. And you are just such an excellent speaker. And thank you for the obvious work you put into your presentation, and the thoughtfulness you put in, and the storytelling. And I think everybody here learned a lot today. So, thank you.

Eric Chassard
No. I just come up, and I make it up.

Laryssa Waler
You do not. So, I’ll start with an easy one. I took your advice, and I stopped by the visitor’s centre in Tiverton for Bruce Power, and I picked up a mug—that I left on the table over there—it says “Canadian at our Core.” And I know you talked a little bit about it during your speech. But do you want to maybe expand a little bit on what that means to you? And what steps do you take in your day-to-day work that remains true to that?

Eric Chassard
Yeah. Well, first I’m glad you took the mug and not the end feeling. Yeah, Canadian at our core is a very deliberate strategy. It seems easy to say that we’re going to spend 95% of all what we are spending in Canada. In fact, it’s very hard to do. And it comes from the benefit we have from the stability of the regulations, the support we have from the Ontario government, but also the long-term contract with the IESO. Once you have this type of long-term contract up to 2064, you can have a long-term strategy. Once you have a long-term strategy, you can give long-term contract to your partners. Once they have long-term contracts, they can invest, and they can increase their capability. So, what they were not able to do in Canada, now, they can have a return on their investment. So, that’s what we did with them, also qualify them, to make sure that they would be successful in this. So, it’s really a very strong partnership.

I gave you the example of Northern Transformers. In fact, we have a lot of this. And we still have a lot in front of us. It’s very deliberate. In fact, nuclear brings much more than electricity. So much more. We bring the stability, the certainty, the independence, the sovereignty that we are missing. And that’s something we can bring. So, why not? So, we are very deliberate about spending as much as we can. In fact, I’m pushing GE, Siemens, or whoever to build a turbine manufacturing facility in Canada. Because I think once we have the volume, we are talking about large new build, we are also to do some life extension. The business is there. So, if there is a business case, we can keep increasing, keep developing this fully-integrated supply chain in Canada. Because that’s going to be a huge asset for us in Canada, but also to export.

In fact, this technology, this [Indiscernible] manufacturing capability in the world, a lot of people, a lot of countries are talking about developing nuclear. You see it in the US, you see it in Poland, you see it in Türkiye, and so on. They don’t have the supply chain we have. If we are able to build this integrated supply chain with France—because that’s really what we are, honestly, we are much more than partners—we can have a huge advantage to export, in fact, this technology and all these parts and equipment.

Laryssa Waler
Brilliant. Building on supply chain, and back to my visit at the visitor’s centre, there is a piece of literature that I picked up there, that it’s a big map of the province of Ontario. And on this map is literally the Bruce Power supplier list, broken out riding by riding.

Eric Chassard
It’s all the good fishing spots in Ontario.

Laryssa Waler
I hear that you like fishing. That’s literally, that’s question number seven…

Eric Chassard
Okay.

Laryssa Waler
…is to ask about fishing on Lake Huron. No, but you’ve got Control Valve in Sarnia, you’ve got MPX in Port Elgin, BWXT in Cambridge, Niagara Fasteners. Do you want to talk just a little more about the impact that Bruce Power has just on the entire province, and maybe the country, and how maybe people think of Bruce Power as a standalone facility on the shores of Lake Huron, but really, you’re touching, sincerely, every community in the province.

Eric Chassard
Yeah. We really have a strategy to bring Team Canada, Team Ontario together. And the more we buy in Ontario, the better, for lots of different reasons. For example, when COVID hit, lots of industries and so on were impacted, because they could not get their stuff. Well, we had no issue with this. You get your car, you get a truck, and you get all your equipment. So, it’s also a very deliberate strategy to mitigate the risk of not getting our parts and equipment. At the same time, we are not doing this by ourselves, right? We have a very strong communication, strong partnership with OPG.

Laryssa Waler
Yeah.

Eric Chassard
So, we are integrating our needs with OPG, so that we give more volume, more certainty to our suppliers. Same thing for the workforce, by the way. We fully integrate our plan with OPG, so that we have a good development, and we can prepare the workforce that we need. But it’s very, very deliberate. So, we take each and every bits and pieces we have to replace. We are doing this over 15 years. So, we came very, very early to look at who was close enough to what we needed for our asset management, the life extension, and so on, so that we had time to invest very early to get our parts ready when we need them for the plant. So, it’s been a strategy that was put in place by Mike Renchek, who was the CEO before me, and I’ve been expanding what he’s done. But he’s done an amazing job just meshing, making sure that we would integrate all the supply chain, and get as much as we can. But also that Ontario, all the communities in Ontario, would get the full benefit of the $13 billion we are spending to increase the life of our site. It’s also a question of supporting the communities. And we see Ontario as our community, in fact.

Laryssa Waler
Great. On the life extension, as Tim said in his opening remarks, you’re the go-to guy to do the impossible. And your Life Extension Program, the Refurbishment Program, has been delivering the units on time and on budget, which is obviously not the global norm. How does that same discipline and those same relationships with your suppliers and with your labour partners translates into how you would approach a new build at Bruce C.?

Eric Chassard
Same thing. I mean, really the idea, and that’s why we’re pushing so hard with the federal government to get the impact assessment, and so on. We are trying to avoid any gap. So, the 5,000 people we have already doing the life extension, the idea is to move them in the new building. Because for a new build, for a large new build, we are going to move to double this. We will need roughly 10,000 people. But when you have already the A-Team, 5,000 highly skilled, fully-trained people, it’s much higher to double, because you’ve got the foundations. They already have the culture, the expectations, the standards, so they’re going to train the new workforce. So, that’s why we have a target of 25% apprentices. We would not need to be so high, but we do this on purpose, so that we are preparing the next generation. Same thing for the construction leadership. We have our own construction leadership academy on site, where we are training the general foreman, the superintendent, so that we have the next generation already. And really, the idea is to have this smoothly, that we just move from MCR for life extension to a new build.

Laryssa Waler
Great. I want to remind the audience here, I think there are QR codes on your table, if you want to submit some questions, they are frankly vetted, and then pop up on this iPad in front of me. There’s been some news recently, and you talked about the isotope partnership with Saugeen Ojibwe First Nation. Isotopes are, you know, a small part of your revenue, but as you said, take up a lot of your attention and a lot of your excitement. Do you want to tell us a little bit more about the partnership, and how it came together?

Eric Chassard
Well, first, I mean, we’ve all been, I guess, unfortunately, personally touched by cancer. So, we are super motivated. And if we can help research development to cure cancer—and I’m very convinced, I’m very excited that this new type of isotope treatment is going to deliver amazing news. In fact, I guess that the best news we’ve got in store that are going to pop up, because we are going to find. And we’re going to find for the nasty one, like the pancreas or liver cancer, and so on. After the way we are doing it with the Saugeen Ojibwe Nation, it’s just amazing. I mean, this isotope story is just good everywhere, wherever you look at it. And we developed this Gamzook’aamin aakoziwin partnership to fight cancer together. That’s the meaning of the partnership. And that’s really a good way to bring us together. We needed to find some ground. When we are talking true Reconciliation, I think we need to find something where that we all understand that is meaningful for all of us, and that’s the case. So, that’s developing a very strong partnership with the Saugeen Ojibwe Nation. And I’m very happy that they will get a flow of revenue to build all the infrastructures they need in the two communities that are going to benefit from the partnership. I think it’s just the beginning. I think it’s really paving the way for us to invent a new way of doing large infrastructure projects in Canada. And we really want to build this, keeping in mind Bruce C, and so on. As I said, we are going to work, we are fully committed to have a strong partnership with the Saugeen Ojibwe Nation, but we would like them to get the same type of benefit, when we are discussing large innovation.

Laryssa Waler
Great. I’m going to talk a little bit about the costs, again. You said in your remarks, and you’ve told me before, 80% of your costs are upfront capital, and that, you know, your assets last generations. And I just heard you say you want to refurbish it again, so we’re looking at a, double that timeline. You also told me that if you get that part wrong, communities are paying for it for generations. And I asked you a little bit about your formal training. And you told me when you study engineering in France, they also teach you finance…

Eric Chassard
M’hm (affirmative).

Laryssa Waler
…because you can’t pay for it, it doesn’t matter if you can design it. How does that reality of that massive upfront cost shape the way you work with your partners and the supply chain from day one?

Eric Chassard
First, it’s a huge duty and responsibility. So, we take it extremely seriously. And that brings a lot of discipline and rigour. Like, I was explaining that my job was to turn around bad project. 70% of the root cause for bad project is starting construction with an incomplete design. It seems easy to say that you’re not going to start construction without design; it’s very hard to do. Because it has to be fully designed, issued for construction, and so on. We could spend a lot of time on this. So, this discipline and rigour will be exactly the same. What I hear a lot from my friends, suppliers, is you’re a tough customer, you’re a demanding customer. And that’s true. I’m not apologetic for it.

Laryssa Waler
I know.

Eric Chassard
We are shooting for excellence in everything we are doing. Like, everything. You want to work with us, and so on, excellence is the target. And so, that’s the expectation. When we are going to start new build, it’s a very challenging endeavour. Most people fail, compared to the folks who succeed. We are going to succeed, because we are going to bring these disciplines, the rigour, but also the friendship that we have developed with the supply chain, so that we all have the same standards, we all have the same focus on the outcome. And the smaller the contract, the better the relationship, and usually, the better the outcome, that’s what we have to. We will try to create this integrated Team Canada, focused on the outcome.

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

Laryssa Waler
Great. A question from the floor—I’m going to build it out, a little—when I hear you talk about your employees and your labour partners, I sense a very genuine affection of respect and care for them. And also, your, like you believe in them, right? So, what is the labour strategy to staff such a large project at its peak? The question here is, is it the number of 8,000 to 10,000 people, especially with all the competing projects in Canada. So, how do you draw the workers, and keep them? And a little bit about your personal reflection on that.

Eric Chassard
Yeah. So, it’s all about people, right? So, we have a base of 5,000 people. And when you do a new build, most of the delta is coming from rebar concrete structure, which we are not doing today, right? So, we are going to tap into a new source or jurisdiction for work—except the Liberals. We already have a good structure for the Liberals. I saw Bill, somewhere. Yeah. Thank you for your help, Bill, on this. And so, we can build on this. We are developing lots of apprentices, and so on. And we meet every month with all our, in fact, all the business managers, and so on, to share the forecast. And it’s a fully integrated forecast with OPG. So, we already know the forecast for OPG. So, we are planning, trying to levelize this together. And so, we see, for example, the SMR of OPG, and when we would start construction for Bruce C. So, we already have a pretty good idea of this. There is a gap, for sure.

Laryssa Waler
Yeah.

Eric Chassard
But we have time to bridge the gap, right? And to build, and to develop this new workforce, again, with apprentices, and developing all the training we need, and so on. But the strong, respectful partnership friendship we have with the trade unions is what is making this a success, right? And so, that will be the same. The strong partnerships, the very transparent relationship we have together, is going to prepare for the new wave of construction. If you think about it, I mean, two generations before us, they were bold enough to build these nuclear power plants that we have the benefit to operate today. So, it’s our turn, right? We need to rise up to the challenge. And we need to deliver. It’s our turn.

Laryssa Waler
Great. Last question, and it will be lighter. Make the pitch that the best fishing and the best kite surfing can be found on Lake Huron to the room.

Eric Chassard
Very clean water, beautiful sunsets, very good wind, very good people.

Laryssa Waler
Great. Well, thank you so much. And this was wonderful.

Eric Chassard
Thank you.

Laryssa Waler
Thank you.

Sarah Letersky
Laryssa and Eric, thank you for that incredible discussion. Your conversation highlighted exactly why Ontario’s energy system must be strong, resilient, and independent, at home, at work, for families, for businesses. Energy supports all of it—and for those camping trips. Please join me, in thanking them both. Now, just before we close, I would like to recognize our additional Lead Sponsor, Candu Energy, a cornerstone of our province’s nuclear sector. I would invite Sandy Taylor, president and CEO of Candu Energy, to the stage. Sandy, thank you for your support at today’s event. Candu Energy is the engineering foundation of this entire dialogue. We appreciate your leadership in keeping our reactors and our province running at peak performance. Please join me, in welcoming Sandy to the stage.

Note of Appreciation by Sandy Taylor, President & CEO, Candu Energy
Thank you very much, Sarah, for the introduction. And it’s always good to share the title sponsorship with Tim and Cameco. Seems like we’re doing that more often these days, Tim. Go figure, eh? And look, Eric, look, I’d like to thank you for a thoughtful and compelling address. And you said to us just earlier, and you said to the audience that you are a challenging leader, Bruce Power is a challenging client. But I would say—I didn’t disagree with you, but I would say that you do make us that much better, you make us more competitive, and that’s good for all of us.

I’d like to thank the Empire Club for creating a forum where conversations like this can take place. We’re at a defining moment for Ontario, and for Canada. A rapidly evolving geopolitical environment, combined with accelerating technological change, is reshaping the global economy, and redefining what energy security really means. At the same time, Canadians are rightly focused on jobs, affordability, and long-term economic resilience. This is why the role of Bruce Power, and nuclear energy more broadly, is so critical. Bruce Power has long been at the heart of Ontario’s electricity system, producing roughly 30% of the province’s electricity from one of the largest nuclear generating complexes in the world. Its substantial investments in refurbishing its existing fleet and planning for upgrades and new builds will ensure Ontario has reliable, clean energy supply for many decades to come.

But this is not just an energy story; it’s also an economic one. Reactor operations, refurbishments, and future operates rely on highly capable Candu operators, and a highly skilled Candu supply chain that, as Eric mentioned, is more than 90% Canadian. That supply chain supports high-quality skilled jobs and long-term industrial capability across construction, operations, maintenance, manufacturing, engineering, academic institutions, research, laboratories, and Indigenous partnerships, to name a few.

Building new nuclear is clearly a priority for Ontario, for other provinces, and for the government of Canada. Today, about 30 countries deploy nuclear power. Nearly as many more want to and need to, to add nuclear generating capacity. And notably, more than 35 countries have recently pledged to triple nuclear energy production by 2050. Canada is exceptionally well-positioned, not only to participate, but to lead. We have sovereign nuclear technology in Candu. We have a robust end-to-end Candu supply chain of nearly 300 Canadian companies. We have abundant uranium resources, Tim. And we have approximately 90,000 highly capable Canadians, whose livelihoods depend on our Canadian nuclear sector. That makes Canada a true nuclear powerhouse.

AtkinsRéalis is proud to be part of this story. In addition to supporting refurbishments and new builds here at home, we’re actively advancing Candu projects internationally, currently creating multiple billions of dollars of exports for Canadian suppliers, and delivering meaningful economic benefits back to Canada, with significant additional new opportunities in the making. At AtkinsRéalis, we see nuclear not just as an energy solution, but as a nation-building opportunity, strengthening energy security, supporting economic resilience, and positioning Canada as a global leader in clean energy. Because this is about more than just electrons on the grid. It’s about our competitiveness. It’s about our prosperity. And it’s about ensuring Canada leads, not follows, in the next chapter of the global clean energy transition. The future of Canadian energy is bright, and nuclear will remain at its core.

So in closing, congrats to Eric and to the Bruce Power team for your many, many successes, and to the Empire Club for creating this forum for creating such meaningful conversations. Thank you.

Concluding Remarks by Sarah Letersky
Thank you again to our panellists, sponsors, and of course, to all of you for joining us. I’d also like to take a moment to recognize the students and young leaders joining us today. Their presence is made possible through our charitable arm, the Empire Club Foundation, and the generosity of our donors. This support enables us to invite future leaders to take part in today’s dialogue, and to empower them to turn knowledge into leadership that shines in communities, boardrooms, and national conversations shaping Canada’s future.

To stay connected, please subscribe to our newsletter by scanning the QR code on your tables. And we also have an exciting new membership program, which you can ask our staff about at the registration desk.

I also hope that you will join us for two upcoming exciting events. On April 24th, we welcome the Honourable Tim Hodgson, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, for “One Year of Nation Building: Looking Back, Moving Forward.” In conversation with Lisa Raitt, the minister will reflect on the Carney government’s first year, focusing on major infrastructure projects, critical minerals, and how our country builds with confidence amid global trade uncertainty. Then on May 12th, the Empire Club hosts the second annual “State of the Airport,” featuring Deborah Flint, President and CEO of Toronto Pearson. Deborah will preview the next era of growth for Canada’s Gateway Airport, and lead a discussion on how strategic alignment across the Pearson ecosystem drives national prosperity. I’m also happy to announce—and this is the last one—on June 2nd, we have our inaugural Empire Club golf tournament, so please visit our website for more information, as tickets are on sale now.

As always, as a club of record, all Empire Club events are available to watch and listen on our website. The recording of today’s event will be available shortly. Thank you all for being part of this important conversation. This meeting is now adjourned.