Feds push to have 3 northern projects fast-tracked under Building Canada Act

The liberalist authorities wants a northwestward Territories main road, an arctic zone deepwater port and a nuclear waste storage facility in northwestern Ontario to be listed as projects of national interest.

Ministers in Yellowknife announced on Wednesday that the government is "initiating the process toward potential listing" of the Mackenzie Valley Highway, the Grays Bay Road and Port and the Deep Geological Repository as projects of national interest.

The Mackenzie Valley and Grays Bay projects, which were referred to the Major Projects Office (MPO) in March, could be named projects of national interest as early as the fall, government officials said. They would be the first projects the Carney government gives that designation.

The repository project was referred to the MPO on Wednesday.

"This is about building Canada strong for all," Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson said.

"We will build, in partnership with Indigenous Peoples, respecting rights and treaties. We will build by maintaining world-class environmental standards so we can do things right the first time, and we will build by making clear to the world that Canada is willing and able to move major projects from possibility to reality."

Officials speaking on background in advance of the announcement said referring these projects to the MPO does not mean they are being rubber stamped, only that they are being considered under the Building Canada Act for speedy approval.

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Bill C-5, Prime Minister Mark Carney's legislation to speed up approvals for major infrastructure projects identified as being "nation-building," passed last year.

The second half of the bill, the Building Canada Act, enables the federal cabinet to pick projects from a list supplied by the MPO, approve them upfront and streamline the process for navigating federal and provincial laws, environmental reviews and the permitting process.

Being listed as a project of national interest by cabinet is supposed to speed up approval times from five years to two by introducing a "one project, one review" approach instead of having federal and provincial approval processes happen sequentially.

Ottawa pushes to have 3 projects designated in 'the national interest'

The Grays Bay Road and Port would include the construction of a 230-kilometre road from the Nunavut border to Grays Bay on the Arctic Ocean where a deepwater port and airstrip would be built. 

Officials speaking on background explained that the export terminal and airstrip could have both civilian and military uses, depending on the results of a further assessment by National Defence.

The proponent for the project is the West Kitikmeot Resources Corporation whose major shareholder is the Kitikmeot Inuit Association. 

The description of the project on the MPO website says it would "enable new resource exploration and development in the mineral-rich Slave Geological Province of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut."

Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon said the federal government has already provided more than $21 million to advance the project, which the minister said would provide year-round access to global markets. 

The Mackenzie Valley Highway is a proposed 800-kilometre all-season gravel highway that would extend from Wrigley, N.W.T., to the Dempster Highway south of Inuvik, N.W.T., passing near communities currently accessible only by air, water and a winter roads.

The project would reduce the distance from Yellowknife to Inuvik by about 1,200 kilometres, cutting travel time from 38 hours to roughly 23 hours.

"This project will have a lasting impact on the quality of life of northerners," MacKinnon said. 

Located in northwestern Ontario, near Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation, this underground nuclear waste storage facility will consist of a network of underground tunnels and rooms that will be used to store waste from Canada's current roster of nuclear reactors. 

The proponent for the project is the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) a not-for-profit established by Canada's nuclear electricity producers in 2002 to safely manage the long-term storage of used nuclear fuel in Canada. 

In a statement the federal government said the project is part of its nuclear energy strategy and will help unlock projects that will boost "investment and create jobs."

National interest listing gives 'greater certainty' to project developers: minister

"These three projects reflect our determination to use every tool available to build the infrastructure Canada needs and to deliver major projects more efficiently," MacKinnon said.

Building commercial corridors, MacKinnon said, will reinforce Canada's supply chains, create good jobs and support northern communities as well as Canada's Arctic sovereignty.

With Wednesday's announcement, the number of projects referred to the MPO is now 16, which, when combined with the seven "transformative strategies" the government has also recommended to the MPO, represents what Hodgson said is "a combined investment in this country of more than $138 billion."

"These major projects will create tens of thousands of well-paying jobs for Canadians," Hodgson said.

"They build our energy, mining and electricity and transportation sectors and beyond that, and they demonstrate to the world Canada's ambition from coast to coast to coast."

Once a project is submitted to the MPO by a government, industry group, company or Indigenous group, it is evaluated against five factors laid out in the Building Canada Act.

Those factors consider whether the project will:

The MPO then conducts a further examination of the project before recommending it to the minister responsible and the prime minister, who will decide if it will be added to Schedule 1 of the Building Canada Act — granting it the fast-tracking privileges.

In a post on social media, Conservative MP Shannon Stubbs dismissed Wednesday's announcement as an "illusion." 

"Mark Carney promised projects at 'speeds once thought unimaginable.' Instead, Canadians got the same Liberal delay, bureaucracy and spin that blocks jobs, resources, investment and infrastructure," she said.

Senior writer

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