OTTAWA — The Carney government has picked two roads through the Arctic and a deep nuclear waste repository as the first possible candidates for its fast-track law, potentially expediting them through regulatory hurdles and arguing they will enhance Canada’s sovereignty, boost exports and grow the economy.
Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon, Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson and Crown Indigenous Relations Minister Rebecca Alty announced the three projects Wednesday at a news conference in Yellowknife. They are the Nuclear Waste Management Deep Geological Repository near Ignace, Ont. and the Wabigoon Lake Ojibway First Nation; the Mackenzie Valley Highway in the Northwest Territories; and Grays Bay Road and Port in Nunavut.
Hodgson said Canada is facing a changing world that requires building infrastructure more rapidly.
“To meet these goals, we are going to need to build big things again both quickly and responsibly in partnership with Indigenous People,” he said. “Today, we make good on a promise we made to Canadians: less talking, more building.”
The three projects are the first to be considered for listing under Bill C-5, the Building Canada Act, which Prime Minister Mark Carney championed in his first months in office last year.
Conservative MP Shannon Stubbs dismissed the latest step as being just another bureaucratic hurdle.
“Today’s announcement is not a project start. It is another Liberal process, another photo op, another illusion,” Stubbs said in a written statement. “Mark Carney promised projects at ‘speeds once thought unimaginable,’ instead, Canadians got the same Liberal delay.”
Hodgson’s press secretary Charlotte Power said the two Arctic projects were picked because of their potential to open up new trade corridors and spur more economic growth. The Grays Bay road includes a deep water port on the Arctic Ocean, an airport with potential military uses and a 230-kilometre road, while the Mackenzie Valley Highway is an 800-kilometre road that shaves 1,200 kilometres off a trip from Yellowknife to Inuvik.
Power said the massive scale and potential of the projects is why they’re being considered for designation, but it also means they would face lengthy reviews.
“Due to the nature and size of the projects, they both face complex regulatory processes that involve several jurisdictions. Listing them under the Building Canada Act would help ensure that the projects can move forward more efficiently,” said Power in an email.
Northwest Territories Premier R.J. Simpson said completing the Mackenzie Valley Highway is long overdue.
“It will be a powerful expression of Arctic sovereignty. It will strengthen our ability to defend North America, and will help advance Canada’s goals of becoming an energy superpower and a global supplier of choice for critical minerals,” Simpson said. “There is still much work ahead and we cannot let up, and we will not let up until the job is done.”
Under the legislation, projects are consider for the national interest designation against criteria including their economic benefits, ability to strengthen Canada’s autonomy and security, their likelihood of being built, and whether they advance the interests of Indigenous People and contribute to Canada’s climate change goals.
On Monday, Hodgson announced a nuclear power strategy that calls for a major expansion that includes 10 new large reactors. He said dealing with nuclear waste has to be part of that initiative.
“If Canada is serious about expanding nuclear energy, we must also be serious about safe, responsible, long-term management of used nuclear fuel,” he said.
While the government’s decision to pursue possible designation expedites the projects, it is no guarantee they will move ahead. Government officials laid out plans for consultations with Indigenous communities and other groups on all three projects over the summer, with cabinet being asked this fall on whether to give the final designations. If a project is designated, most regulatory reviews would be brought together with the government creating one set of conditions for the project within two years.
The nuclear waste repository, which has been under consideration for more than a decade, aims to store waste up to 800 metres underground in a massive complex that would collect it for decades and keep it contained for hundreds or even thousands of years.
It was first conceived in 2002 when the Chrétien government passed legislation requiring nuclear power producers to develop a plan for nuclear waste that is currently stored on-site at reactors across the country.
Producers have been paying into a trust account with approximately $6 billion set aside as of 2025. Building the facility is expected to cost $4.5 billion, and the full cost — including decades of operation and the eventual closure of the facility — is expected to be $26 billion.
After deciding on a deep repository, the Nuclear Waste Management Organization spent 14 years identifying a location for the facility, which is expected to create 1,500 jobs.
The nuclear repository has sparked some controversy, with one nearby Indigenous community, the Eagle Lake First Nation, having filed a legal challenge against it. A representative from Eagle Lake declined to comment on Wednesday.
