Green Giants: Titans of Renewable Energy Podcast
Welcome to Green Giants: Titans of Renewable Energy, a podcast dedicated to unveiling the stories, insights, and strategies of the most influential leaders in the renewable energy sector. Our mission is to offer a platform where the voices of innovators, pioneers, and visionaries in renewable energy are amplified, sharing their journey, challenges, and triumphs with a global audience.
Green Giants: Titans of Renewable Energy Podcast
Build Big Things: Canada’s Playbook for Energy Superpower Status
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Canada has the resources. It has the talent. It has global demand knocking at the door.
So why does so much potential stall before projects reach final investment decision (FID)?
In Episode 91 of Green Giants: Titans of Renewable Energy, Wes Ashworth sits down with Jay Khosla and Yiota Kokkinos of the Public Policy Forum to unpack what it actually takes to build large-scale energy, infrastructure, and critical mineral projects in Canada.
Drawing from decades of leadership inside Natural Resources Canada, the Privy Council Office, and global energy forums, Jay and Yiota bring rare, insider clarity to one pressing question:
How does Canada move from ambition to execution?
Their report, Build Big Things, outlines a practical, four-pillar framework to get major projects across the finish line:
- Coordinated financing that aligns public capital and private investment
- Regulatory certainty with clear timelines and disciplined execution
- Indigenous economic partnership built on ownership and trust
- Enabling infrastructure planned as integrated systems, not afterthoughts
They explore why final investment decision is the real battleground for global capital, how fragmented financing slows progress, and why certainty is Canada’s greatest competitive advantage.
The conversation also tackles:
- Canada’s declining productivity and GDP per capita growth
- The geopolitical urgency created by shifting U.S. trade dynamics
- Why perception matters in global investment markets
- How culture change inside public institutions can unlock outcomes
- Why small modular reactors may be Canada’s defining test case
Canada exports over 90 percent of its energy. The world wants what Canada has. But capital is mobile, and investors move where projects move.
If Canada can streamline governance, align federal and provincial leadership, modernize regulatory execution, and build meaningful Indigenous economic participation, the upside is enormous. Modeling suggests the country could add trillions in economic value over the next decade.
This episode is not about theory. It is about implementation.
If Canada gets this right, it does not just build projects. It reshapes its economic future.
Links:
Wes Ashworth: https://www.linkedin.com/in/weslgs/
- Email: wes@leegroupsearch.com
- https://leegroupsearch.com/green-giants-podcast/
- https://leegroupsearch.com/
