Originally published in The Toronto Star.

Thanks to its vast hydropower resources, Canada is already a clean energy superpower, blessed with 80 per cent non-emitting electricity. But delivering on that clean electricity advantage to fully power Canada’s clean energy transition and meet its emission goals is going to require building bigger, cleaner, smarter grids capable of doubling or tripling current capacity.

It’s a massive undertaking, one that will require governments to treat clean electricity like health care: a provincial responsibility with federal funding — and federal guardrails.

This approach, which we’ve discussed before, has been dubbed electric federalism. Achieving it is going to require both ambition and compromise on both sides.

For its part, the federal government is expected to more properly recognize provincial primacy with the coming release if its Clean Electricity Regulation. The feds are also readying more flexible terms of Investment Tax Credits (ITCs) for electricity.

Provinces are also stepping up, but important gaps remain. While some provinces have written their climate goals into law, none have sufficiently aligned their climate and energy policies. This puts energy utilities and regulators in a tough spot when it comes to planning for a much different energy mix in 2050.

What utilities and regulators need is a map: one with a clear destination, but also the route the jurisdiction aims to travel in getting there.

Net zero energy road maps from provincial governments can provide the missing direction. Road maps articulate a provincial government’s vision, objectives, and plans for how the province will meet its energy needs on the road to net zero.

Manitoba and New Brunswick have each committed to developing an energy road map. British Columbia has the beginnings of one. And last summer, Ontario put out its Powering Ontario’s Growth plan, which, despite its gaps, is an important step in the right direction.

Provincial energy road maps are so important that we have argued that they should be a condition of federal funding support for provincial energy transitions. Two years ago, we wrote in support of Ottawa providing provinces with funding for their electricity systems in exchange for provincial governments setting out details of their expansion plans.

Since then, the federal government has proposed Clean Electricity Investment Tax Credits that could deliver provinces more than $25 billion in support, and suggested some conditions it might attach — including provinces committing to reaching net zero electricity by 2035.

But if provincial energy road maps are so important they should be a condition of federal funding, we must not lose sight of the larger point: the transition itself is so important that the details, including the arrival date, shouldn’t stand in the way of accelerating in the right direction.

Along these lines, the Electricity Advisory Council recommended in its final report that the federal government swap its proposed conditions for a single and straightforward one: the mere development of energy road maps. The council concluded that a hard 2035 deadline was unnecessary, and that it was more important to focus on the bigger picture. The only stipulations for this new condition would be that road maps focus on getting to net zero domestic energy by 2050, and set out five-year milestones along the way.

If the federal government is serious about delivering on its climate goals within Canada’s decentralized federation, it should listen to the council and make credible road maps the sole condition of ITC access.

Then it’s up to the provinces to hop in the driver’s seat and start driving.