LNG Canada's flare stack burns at its export facility in Kitimat, B.C. The Ksi Lisims liquefied natural gas project in the province has been referred to the Major Projects Office for consideration.Jesse Winter/Reuters
Prime Minister Mark Carney confirmed new mining and energy projects have been added to a list of natural-resource developments the government wants to see fast-tracked in a bid to wean Canada off its economic reliance on the United States.
The projects are the second batch of referrals to the Carney government’s Major Projects Office, given the task of speeding up what the Prime Minister has described as “nation-building” infrastructure. The first round was announced in September.
The six projects announced Thursday are the Ksi Lisims liquefied natural gas project in British Columbia; Ontario’s Crawford nickel project; New Brunswick’s Sisson mine; Nouveau Monde Graphite’s Matawinie Mine in Quebec; the Iqaluit Nukkiksautiit Hydro Project and the North Coast Transmission Line in northwest B.C.
Mr. Carney also said the Canada Infrastructure Bank is lending $140-million to BC Hydro for the transmission line.
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“Each of these projects that we are referring to the MPO today is transformational, and their impacts will be amplified by being part of bigger national strategies to boost Canada’s competitiveness,” Mr. Carney said at an event in Terrace, B.C.
The office was set up under the Building Canada Act, legislation passed in the spring to follow through on a key campaign promise from Mr. Carney: find faster ways to build big things.
Led by former Trans Mountain chief executive Dawn Farrell, the office can designate projects that meet certain criteria as “national interest,” which would expedite regulatory processes. None of the projects referred to her office to date have received that designation.
The federal government announced the latest batch of major projects to be considered for fast-tracking, all focused on critical minerals and energy.
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Many projects now on the MPO list have been in development for decades, have most permits and financing in place, as well as buy-in – if not outright ownership – from Indigenous communities.
That led to numerous questions Thursday on how the involvement of the federal office changes anything.
“For projects like Crawford, we’re working to come up with processes where we can run all the permitting in parallel, so that we’re not doing it sequentially,” Ms. Farrell said.
“So, something that might have taken five or six more years can now take two years.”
Canada Nickel Co.’s Crawford nickel project is touted as the world’s second-largest nickel-sulphide reserve, located 42 kilometres north of Timmins, Ont.
Canada Nickel CEO Mark Selby told reporters on Thursday that the referral will help attract international investors and partners to chip in for construction as well as put its remaining permits in the priority line.
Ontario Energy Minister Stephen Lecce said the Crawford project could start construction next year.
“It’s also a critical step in reducing the Chinese regime’s grip on the critical-mineral supply chain,” he said in a statement on social media.
B.C. Premier David Eby said the MPO’s involvement could help resolve tensions with First Nations, arrange financing and sell the projects to international markets.
The Building Canada Act passed in June with the support of the Conservatives. Party Leader Pierre Poilievre had also campaigned on a promise to speed up natural-resource development.
However, he criticized Thursday’s announcement.
“He’s not actually getting anything done, he’s just showing up to take credit for things that were going to happen anyway,” he said during a speech in Kelowna, B.C.
Environmental and Indigenous groups are also concerned, arguing that the government’s fast-tracking powers will trample ecological protections and treaty rights.
Ksi Lisims is being led by Nisga’a Nation but other B.C. First Nations are challenging it in court.
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Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs lost their own challenge of the project in B.C. Supreme Court in August. The group raised concerns that included the potential the project could threaten salmon populations travelling up the Nass River to their territory.
“Our lands and rights to salmon are unceded, and this means consent and consultation are required,” Simogyet Watakhayetsxw, also known as Hereditary Chief Deborah Good, said in a statement.
The minority Liberals’ budget, tabled last week, sets aside millions to help Indigenous leaders engage in the consultation process around proposed projects, and also funding for the MPO itself.
Climate groups singled out the LNG infrastructure proposals Thursday, pointing to American investor involvement, and that the projects support a dying industry in a world focused on eliminating emissions.
“Saying that building LNG infrastructure is in the national interest is oxymoronic,” said Alex Walker of Environmental Defence.
The proposed Sisson Mine in New Brunswick – an idea that’s more than a decade old – would extract tungsten and molybdenum, two minerals used for energy storage and production, and that also have military applications. The U.S. Defence Department has funded the mine’s development.
The five projects announced in September were: LNG Canada Phase 2, which would expand the liquefied natural gas export facility at Kitimat, B.C.; modular reactors at Ontario’s existing Darlington Nuclear Generating Station; an expansion by the Port of Montreal in Contrecoeur, Que.; Saskatchewan’s Foran McIlvenna Bay copper mine project; and the Red Chris Copper and Gold Mine expansion in B.C.
The Red Chris mine is part of the Northwest Critical Conservation Corridor, an area with a significant deposit of critical minerals. Two of the projects announced Thursday – the LNG proposal and the transmission line – are also part of the area.
The entire corridor was referred to the MPO in September, though on Thursday Mr. Carney announced its referral again, stressing the potential for the area to play a major role in economic growth.
“The Northwest corridor has extraordinary potential to unlock critical minerals development, clean-power transmission, all under Indigenous leadership,” he said.
“We’re talking tens of billions of dollars of investments, and in parallel, creating a new conservation area the size of Greece.”
With reports from Justine Hunter, Matthew Scace, Jeff Jones, Jeff Gray and Emily Haws