Coast to Coast to Coast
Canadian geography in 24 lessons, with Nora Beaulieu
Module 6 · Resources and economy · Lecture 15

Energy: what's under the ground and behind the dams

Oil, gas, hydro, nuclear and uranium, province by province, from the Canada Energy Regulator, plus the oil sands by Alberta's own numbers. Map skill: proportional-symbol and flow maps.

All lectures Take the quiz

Test yourself

1. Where does Canada rank among the world's crude oil producers, by the Canada Energy Regulator's twenty twenty-three figures?
Canada was the fourth-largest oil producer in the world at five point one million barrels a day in twenty twenty-three.
2. What share of Canada's electricity came from hydro in twenty twenty-one, by the Canada Energy Regulator?
Hydro made about sixty per cent of Canada's electricity in twenty twenty-one, which is why Canada ranks third in the world for hydroelectricity.
3. Which is the only province that mines uranium?
Saskatchewan is the only province producing uranium, which is why Canada ranks second in the world for it.
4. What is the biggest source of Ontario's electricity?
Ontario's electricity was fifty-five per cent nuclear in twenty twenty-one, from three stations including Bruce on Lake Huron.
5. The lettered map has four energy symbols marked A to D. Which one marks the oil sands?
A sits over the Athabasca, Cold Lake and Peace River areas of northern Alberta, while B is the Bruce nuclear station on Lake Huron, C is Churchill Falls in Labrador and D is the uranium country of northern Saskatchewan.
Transcript

Churchill Falls, Labrador, deep inside the rock, on the tour of the underground powerhouse. Denise Rich is forty-four, from Sheshatshiu, and she is a hydro operations technician here. The town above has a few hundred people. The station under it has 5,428 MW of capacity, by the Canada Energy Regulator's count. Every summer visitors ask her the same question: where does all this power go?

So here's the question. What does Canada actually run on, where is each kind of energy made, and why does the answer change completely when you cross a provincial line?

The Canada Energy Regulator's national profile says this. Crude oil: 5.1 million barrels a day in 2023, fourth in the world. Fifth in natural gas. Third in hydroelectricity. Second in uranium, about 15% of world output. Electricity in 2021 was 60% hydro. Crude exports topped $130 billion in 2023, nearly all to the United States.

Now cross the lines. Alberta pumps 84% of the oil, over three-quarters of it from the oil sands. Saskatchewan is second in oil, at 9%, and the only province mining uranium. Newfoundland's offshore is 4%, and its electricity 97% hydro. Quebec is ninety-4% hydro and the top electricity producer; British Columbia 93%; Manitoba 96%. Ontario is different: 55% nuclear.

Find it on the map. The map now shows the Canada Energy Regulator's generating stations by type: a circle for each station, sized by megawatts, coloured by source. Blue is hydro: look at Quebec and the Churchill River in Labrador, the biggest blue circles. Purple is nuclear: three circles on Ontario's lakeshores, the largest at Bruce on Lake Huron. Check the legend before guessing a size. Find your own province's biggest.

The oil sands deserve their own number. Alberta's government says they lie under 142,200 km² in three areas, Athabasca, Cold Lake and Peace River. Only about three point 4% of that area is shallow enough to mine; the rest is heated underground. Since April 2024 the twinned Trans Mountain line to Burnaby has been cleared to carry 890,000 barrels a day.

Let's change one fact. Move the Shield's big rivers from Quebec and Labrador to the Prairies. Saskatchewan, which today makes most of its electricity from gas and coal, would suddenly have Quebec's hydro, and Quebec would keep its forests but lose the 22.6 TWh it sold to the United States in 2022, more than any other province. Where the water falls decides where the cheap power is.

The mistake people make is saying Canada runs on oil. Canada sells oil, a great deal of it, but the country's own electricity is 60% hydro, by the regulator's 2021 figures, and Ontario's grid is more than half nuclear. Oil and gas are what we export and burn in vehicles; the plug in the wall is mostly falling water, and in Ontario, split atoms.

Here's the rule, in one breath. Fourth in oil, second in uranium, third in hydro, and 60% of the electricity is falling water, but every province has its own answer.

This week, find your provincial utility's real-time generation page, most of them show it hour by hour, and compare what is running tonight with the Canada Energy Regulator's 2021 shares on the course page. Then look up what the nearest generating station to your home actually burns, or doesn't.

Next time, fields, forests, mines, boats and factories: potash, canola, lobster, nickel and Ontario's auto plants, and where the exports go.

← Lecture 14: Indigenous peoples, treaties and the map of the NorthLecture 16: Fields, forests, mines, boats and factories: what Canada makes and sells →
Free, independent course. Not an official resource of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada or of any Ministry of Education. Facts are from Statistics Canada, Natural Resources Canada, Environment and Climate Change Canada and other government sources, as dated in each lecture; figures change, so check the source for the latest. Maps are drawn from Natural Earth (public domain); photographs are from Wikimedia Commons under open licences, credited on the maps and photos page. Nora Beaulieu is an AI-generated presenter with a synthetic voice. Course content © 2026.