One prominent Canadian businessman says he is bullish on Canada’s nuclear energy industry and has invested in the sector. 

Michael Lee-Chin, the chairman of Portland Holdings, said in an interview with BNN Bloomberg on Monday that whenever there is a shift in the most frequently used energy sources, there is a change in economic influence. Currently, he said an “inevitable” shift is occurring toward the use of nuclear power. He said that following the Paris Agreement in 2015, many countries committed to becoming net zero by 2050 and will need to transition away from fossil fuels to achieve that goal. 

“We need to replace that base fuel… and supplant it, replace it with something that's always on, highly scalable and energy-dense, but clean. And the only such source known to mankind is nuclear fission,” he said. 

According to Lee-Chin, nuclear energy will come predominantly in the form of small modular reactors (SMR) and micro modular reactors that can be quickly produced in factories. 

“So what we're doing, we're investing in everything upstream of the SMR and downstream (of) what SMRs will enable, like hydrogen as an example,” he said. 

Additionally, Lee-Chin said Canada is “uniquely positioned” to grow its nuclear power capabilities, especially in Ontario; a province that is vertically integrated due to being consumers of nuclear power and having the raw materials in the region. 

“It would be a shame if Ontario didn't build an industry to take advantage of the huge demand for…nuclear expertise in all areas,” he said. 

To watch the full interview with Michael Lee-Chin click on the video above the article.