Ontario power companies respond to large-scale blackout

A tree downed across Yonge Street in Innisfil, Ont July 1 2026. (Alex Prebul)

Power is slowly returning to Simcoe County in Ontario after severe weather left thousands in the dark on Canada Day.

Severe weather across the region left thousands without electricity and knocked down several trees and power lines, which crews are now working to clean up.

• RELATED: Thousands with power after Barrie, central Ontario thunderstorms

“We’re responding as safely and quickly as possible to outages caused by thunderstorms across the province,” said power company Hydro One via a pop-up statement on its website.

“After a storm, Hydro One prioritizes restoration in a way that brings power back to the greatest number of customers in the shortest period of time,” the company said.

Crews making ‘steady progress’: InnPower

In a statement posted to social media, the company is also asking residents to stay at least 10 metres back from downed power lines in their area.

As of Thursday morning, places like Georgina and Innisfil are still being assessed for damage, according to the outage map of power company InnPower.

“Our crews continue to make steady progress restoring power across our service area following today’s storm,” the corporation said in a series of outage update posts on social media on Wednesday.

Elexicon Energy also took to social media to apologize to customers on Wednesday evening.

“We apologize for the inconvenience caused by this evening’s outages following a short but severe storm,” the company says via a post on X.

“Crews have been dispatched and are actively responding,” the company says, adding, “we will work 24/7 until power is restored.”