Statement by Emily Hunter, Senior Program Manager, Ontario Climate

Toronto | Traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabeg, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat – Today’s announcement by Ontario’s Minister of Energy and Mines, Stephen Lecce, designating Frontier Lithium’s PAK Lithium Project near Red Lake as the first to advance under the Ontario government’s new “One Project, One Process” (1P1P) framework, is framed as a cornerstone for expanding Ontario’s Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) capacity. Yet, it reveals the province’s contradictory and misleading narrative of a clean-energy transition.

While the Ontario government celebrates the PAK project as a symbol of so-called “energy sovereignty,” its broader actions tell a different story—one that favours gas and nuclear expansion while undermining the clean-energy economy these batteries are supposed to support.

We support ethically and environmentally sound battery projects when they are used to back up renewable energy. But what Ontario announced today is a mining-to-nowhere strategy—building batteries without renewables while also building gas plants where we could have battery storage projects. The Ontario government is fast-tracking mineral extraction while blocking the very projects those batteries are meant to support. That’s not an energy transition. It’s greenwashing.

Ontario’s Long-Term 2 (LT2) energy procurement process was intended to acquire renewables and battery storage only, replacing aging fossil fuel plants and meeting rising demand with renewable energy solutions. Under Minister Lecce, the government opened the door to gas generation in LT2. As a result, over 1,800 MW of gas projects have already received municipal endorsements for a procurement window that will be open until December 18, 2025. 

If Minister Lecce and the Ontario government were serious about Ontario’s “clean energy advantage,” they would not have disadvantaged battery storage developers in Ontario by skewing the procurement towards favouring gas plants for the 600MW allocation in the upcoming LT2 energy procurement window.

Today’s lithium announcement highlights the government’s hypocrisy. We’re mining for more batteries under the banner of a clean-energy transition while the government is stacking the deck for gas generation.

ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE (environmentaldefence.ca): Environmental Defence is a leading Canadian advocacy organization that works with government, industry and individuals to defend clean water, a safe climate and healthy communities.

– 30 –

For more information or to request an interview, please contact:

Tamara Latinovic, media@environmentaldefence.ca