Eby, Rustad hold campaign events on Vancouver Island on final day of advanced voting

TORONTO – Ontario’s electricity system operator is expecting demand to soar 75 per cent higher by 2050, in part due to electric-vehicle manufacturing and new data centres supporting artificial intelligence.

That is far higher than the 60 per cent increase projected just last year.

The Independent Electricity System Operator says industrial demand alone will increase by 58 per cent by 2035, adding the equivalent of a city the size of Toronto to the grid, as EV battery plants and other parts of the supply chain start production.

At least 16 new data centres are forecast to be in service by 2035, driving 13 per cent of the new electricity demand, which the IESO says is a worldwide trend due to the proliferation of AI.

Chuck Farmer, the IESO’s vice-president of planning, conservation and resource adequacy, says Ontario already has data centres, but the growth in AI functions is pushing their energy needs infinitely higher.

The IESO says the province has enough power for the rest of this decade, and it will outline in a planning outlook early next year how it intends to meet the rising future demand.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2024.

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TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was up more than 100 points in late-morning trading, helped by strength in base metal and utility stocks, while U.S. stock markets were mixed.

The S&P/TSX composite index was up 103.40 points at 24,542.48.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 192.31 points at 42,932.73. The S&P 500 index was up 7.14 points at 5,822.40, while the Nasdaq composite was down 9.03 points at 18,306.56.

The Canadian dollar traded for 72.61 cents US compared with 72.44 cents US on Tuesday.

The November crude oil contract was down 71 cents at US$69.87 per barrel and the November natural gas contract was down eight cents at US$2.42 per mmBTU.

The December gold contract was up US$7.20 at US$2,686.10 an ounce and the December copper contract was up a penny at US$4.35 a pound.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD)

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OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says the level of food insecurity increased in 2022 as inflation hit peak levels.

In a report using data from the Canadian community health survey, the agency says 15.6 per cent of households experienced some level of food insecurity in 2022 after being relatively stable from 2017 to 2021.

The reading was up from 9.6 per cent in 2017 and 11.6 per cent in 2018.

Statistics Canada says the prevalence of household food insecurity was slightly lower and stable during the pandemic years as it fell to 8.5 per cent in the fall of 2020 and 9.1 per cent in 2021.

In addition to an increase in the prevalence of food insecurity in 2022, the agency says there was an increase in the severity as more households reported moderate or severe food insecurity.

It also noted an increase in the number of Canadians living in moderately or severely food insecure households was also seen in the Canadian income survey data collected in the first half of 2023.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct 16, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.