EFC has submitted its 2026 Pre-Budget Submission to the Government of Canada, outlining recommendations to strengthen Canada’s electrical and automation industry and support the infrastructure needed for a more competitive and electrified economy.
The submission calls for federal action to strengthen Canadian manufacturing and critical supply chains, modernize electricity infrastructure, accelerate investment, expand EV charging infrastructure, develop the skilled workforce, modernize Canada’s standards environment, and support companies affected by tariffs and trade disruption.
This year’s recommendations are informed by EFC’s national research report, Building Canada’s Future Electricity Grid: A Supply Chain and Policy Roadmap, developed with Dunsky Energy + Climate Advisors, as well as input from EFC members and Government Relations committees and collaboration with key partners across Canada’s electricity and electrification sectors, including Electricity Canada, Electric Mobility Canada, Canadian Renewable Energy Association and the Electricity Distributors Association.
Why It Matters
Canada’s ability to deliver on housing, industrial growth, major infrastructure projects, AI and data centre investment, and broader electrification will increasingly depend on the capacity and resilience of the electrical and automation supply chain.
The technologies needed to support electrification already exist. The challenge is ensuring Canada has the manufacturing capacity, secure supply chains, modern regulatory frameworks, skilled workforce and investment conditions required to deploy them at the pace and scale needed to meet growing electricity demand.
At the same time, trade uncertainty, tariffs and supply-chain disruptions are increasing costs, extending lead times and complicating investment decisions. EFC’s submission calls on the federal government to treat the electrical supply chain not simply as an industry issue, but as a critical enabler of Canada’s productivity, economic growth, energy security and global competitiveness.
Together, these perspectives inform EFC’s recommendations to the federal government on the investments and policy actions needed to build a more competitive, resilient and electrified Canadian economy.
EFC’s Budget 2026 Priorities
| Priority Recommendation |
Proposed Measures |
| Scale and Secure Domestic Manufacturing and Supply Chains for Critical Grid Technologies |
- Launch a critical electricity supply chain initiative focused on strategic equipment, manufacturing inputs, gaps and bottlenecks.
- Coordinate joint procurement across utilities: Aggregate demand and align specifications for key grid equipment to secure manufacturing capacity and reduce lead times.
|
| Improve Competitiveness and Build Canadian Manufacturing Capacity Through Tax Credits and Strategic Investment |
- Expand the Clean Technology Manufacturing Investment Tax Credit to include strategic grid, building and electrification technologies.
- Continue to complement investment tax credits with targeted financing to expand existing Canadian manufacturing and establish new domestic production in strategic areas where Canada currently relies heavily on imports.
- Maintain Predictable, long term, competitive tax and investment conditions that encourage businesses to make investments in Canada.
|
| Introduce Domestic Content Incentives that Strengthen Canadian Manufacturing |
- Establish a domestic content adder within federal investment tax credit frameworks.
- Harmonize domestic-content approaches across jurisdictions, enabling companies to adjust supply chains to meet the threshold requirements.
- Preserve access to integrated North American supply chains.
|
| Accelerate Grid Modernization, Distribution Infrastructure and Demand Flexibility |
- Re-establish and sustain smart-grid demonstration and deployment programs with clear multi-year funding horizons and requirements to support replication requirements
- Expand federal funding eligibility to include modern distribution-system infrastructure, digital-grid technologies and demand-side solutions.
- Create targeted, time-limited deployment incentives for priority grid and flexibility technologies.
- Establish a national utility-regulatory modernization initiative to advance best practices in cost recovery, distributed-energy-resource integration, non-wires solutions, extension-fee policies and performance-based regulation.
- Support the development and adoption of interoperability standards that enable grid technologies and distributed resources to work together effectively.
|
| Accelerate Regional Transmission and Interprovincial Interties |
- Fast-track priority transmission and grid infrastructure projects with established, streamlined, time-bound approval processes based on a “one project, one review” approach.
- Provide financial support for regional transmission corridors and interprovincial interties to enable projects of national or regional significance.
|
| Build the Workforce Required for Canada’s Electrified Economy |
- Conduct a comprehensive review of electrical workforce training and credentialing to foster knowledge, skills and abilities to implement grid technology.
|
| Modernize Standards Environment Required for Canada’s Electrified Economy |
- Support faster adoption and harmonized implementation of modern electrical, building and energy codes across Canada.
- Increase funding for the Standards Council of Canada to support Canadian participation in the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and other international standards-development activities.
- Accelerate harmonization and mutual recognition of standards that facilitate interprovincial and international trade.
- Reduce unnecessary regulatory differences among provinces and territories.
|
| Invest in a National Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Strategy |
- Recapitalize and provide predictable, long-term funding for the Zero Emission Vehicle Infrastructure Program.
- Expand the Clean Technology Investment Tax Credit to include charging infrastructure for on-road electric vehicles, including public, fleet and commercial charging.
- Develop a national strategy to retrofit existing multi-unit residential buildings for EV charging, supported by targeted financial incentives.
- Work with provinces, territories and code-development bodies to ensure that new multi-unit residential buildings are constructed EV-ready.
- Support public charging in rural, remote, northern and other underserved communities where private investment alone may be insufficient.
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| Tariff support for impacted electrical and automation companies
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- Accelerate the tariff-remission process by establishing clear eligibility criteria, service standards and expedited review pathways for affected businesses.
- Ensure tariff-support programs are accessible to electrical and automation companies affected directly or indirectly through integrated supply chains.
- Prioritize remission for essential manufacturing inputs and component parts that are unavailable in Canada or cannot be supplied domestically in sufficient quantities.
- Ensure remission decisions take effect from the date tariffs were paid so companies are not penalized by processing delays.
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