Ipsos-Reid/ Canadian Nuclear Association Survey

Ottawa, ONTARIO- Approaching the one-year anniversary of the August 2003 Black Out, which darkened much of Ontario and the eastern United States, fewer than half of Ontarians (43%) believe Canada's electricity supply is sufficient to meet present and future needs. This is among the key findings of an Ipsos-Reid survey conducted in May on behalf of the Canadian Nuclear Association.

Nationwide, confidence that Canada's electricity supply is sufficient to meet present and future needs has declined by 12 points among Canadian adults from 71% in April 2002 to 59% this year.

In response to Canada's growing demand for electricity, 61% of Ontarians and 56% of Canadians nationwide believe that Canada's energy future should include a mix of many sources of electricity - including nuclear energy - rather than focus on environmentally-friendly sources of power. Moreover, fully 88% of Ontarians and 75% of Canadians nationwide believe that nuclear power will be part of Canada's energy mix in the future. In light of this, 67% of Ontarians and 57% of respondents nationwide support upgrading and modernizing Canada's nuclear facilities. In addition, half of Ontarians (50%) and 37% of respondents nationwide support building new nuclear facilities.

In separate polling, Ipsos-Reid found that support for nuclear energy has grown among Ontarians from 57% in April 2002 to 64% in early June. Nationwide, 49% of Canadian adults express support for nuclear energy, which is largely consistent with the findings of earlier years (c.f. 49% in April 2002).

These are the findings of an Ipsos-Reid/Canadian Nuclear Association poll conducted on two occasions, between May 13 and May 21 and again between June 1 and 3, 2004. In May, a representative randomly selected sample of 2,207 adult Canadians (obtaining a 1772.1% margin of error) and 800 Ontarians (obtaining a +3.5% margin of error) was interviewed by telephone. In June, a representative randomly selected sample of 1,000 adult Canadians (obtaining a 1773.1% margin of error) and 379 Ontarians (obtaining a 1775% margin of error) was interviewed by telephone.

These margins of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population. These data were weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to the 2001 Census data.

Please open the attached PDF to view the reports, factum and detailed tables.

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For more information on this news release, please contact:

Dr. Darrell Bricker, PhD
President & COO
Ipsos-Reid Public Affairs
(416) 324-2900