An LNG Canada Phase 2 project at Kitimat, B.C. is on the federal government's list of projects that will be considered for fast-tracking.Jesse Winter/Reuters
Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the first projects that will be reviewed for fast-track approval under Ottawa’s Building Canada Act and said he’s working with Alberta on a carbon capture and storage project that could ultimately lead to a new oil pipeline.
Mr. Carney revealed the list Thursday in Edmonton, where Liberal MPs were gathered for a caucus retreat ahead of the return of House of Commons sittings Monday.
The five projects being referred to the new Major Projects Office include LNG Canada Phase 2, which would expand the liquefied natural gas export facility at Kitimat, B.C. Also on the list are 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.
A central plank of Mr. Carney’s pitch to voters in the April campaign was that the trade disputes with the U.S. urgently required Canada to find a new approach to resource development and export.
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The Prime Minister framed it as needing to move away from always asking why major projects needed to be built to how they could get done. The five projects unveiled Thursday are already under way and Mr. Carney said their referral to the Major Projects Office is aimed at getting them across the finish line.
Success for his government’s new approach will be measured by what’s being proposed and built, but also something more intangible, he told reporters.
“We’ll feel it: a changed attitude within this country and outside this country, and the ability of Canada to control our destiny, to build and to build big,” he said.
A view of Darlington Nuclear Generating Station in Courtice, Ont., May, 2023.Carlos Osorio/The Globe and Mail
All five projects unveiled Thursday were part of a draft list of 32 projects obtained by The Globe and Mail.
More are expected to be added to the list before mid-November.
Examples include a proposed high-speed rail linking Quebec City and Toronto, and future port projects in Canada’s Far North.
Whether projects will receive federal funding is case-dependent, Mr. Carney said.
Some, such as LNG expansion, may involve relatively small federal financial contributions, he said, while projects such as Arctic ports that would have a defence component would be federally led and would have larger taxpayer support.
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Provincial premiers were enthusiastic about Mr. Carney’s new approach when it was unveiled earlier in the year and had numerous pitches for projects they wanted to see on the list.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, who had urged a new pipeline, said the first-round picks show that the Carney government is listening, even if a pipeline has yet to make the cut.
“When I looked at the first five projects, I thought, ‘finally, they get it.’ Because it’s all the projects that have been difficult to build,” she said Thursday. “It’s mining projects, it’s LNG Canada. And I think that that demonstrates a real shift in the focus of this government.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney greets Alberta Premier Danielle Smith during the 2025 summer meetings of Canada's premiers.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
Mr. Carney left the door open to a pipeline if it was connected to a carbon-capture project called “Pathways Plus.”
He said Thursday that all of the projects will contribute toward Canada’s climate goals, though his government has not been clear whether it is still committed to specific emissions-reductions targets.
There is no proponent for a pipeline, and Ms. Smith described the situation as a “a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem.” Private companies won’t step up she said if they are facing emission caps, tankers bans and power regulations.
Jim Reiter, Saskatchewan’s Deputy Premier and Finance Minister, said if those measures weren’t in place, all projects could be adopted, not just those “selected by politicians in Ottawa.”
“Most Canadians were expecting a more ambitious list of projects,” Mr. Reiter said in a statement, and his government is particularly concerned with the omission of uranium projects.
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Ontario Premier Doug Ford welcomed the inclusion of the Darlington expansion and added that he hoped a federal process will be in place for new large-scale nuclear facilities in the province.
The federal government’s Building Canada Act, approved in June as part of Bill C-5, allows cabinet to designate specific projects as being in the national interest, meaning that they can then qualify for a faster approval process.
Having a project designated under C-5 could potentially allow for exemptions from other federal laws, such as Bill C-69, the Impact Assessment Act, and the government is targeting completion of the review process within two years.
The head of the new federal government Major Projects Office Dawn Farrell speaks, as Prime Minister Mark Carney, looks on, during the announcement of five major projects in Edmonton, on Thursday.AMBER BRACKEN/The Canadian Press
The process will be overseen by a new Calgary-based Major Projects Office, led by veteran energy executive Dawn Farrell.
In addition to the initial five projects, the government also announced that there are “several strategies” for projects that could be “truly transformative” for Canada but require further development.
Six categories are listed, including critical minerals; “Wind West Atlantic Energy;” Pathways Plus; an “Arctic Economic and Security Corridor,” which is described as an all-weather road and infrastructure project; “Port of Churchill Plus,” described as an upgrade to the Port of Churchill and related infrastructure such as an all-weather road, an upgraded rail line, a new energy corridor, and marine ice-breaking capacity; and Alto High-Speed Rail.
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said the reference to Churchill was “exciting” for his province.
“There’s a lot of work that’s going to have to happen. We’ve got to think about wildlife, environment, our Indigenous partner governments,” he told reporters at the Manitoba legislature. “But it’s clear today they have a lot of interest in Hudson Bay.”
The Carney government faced early blowback from Indigenous communities over the approach outlined in C-5. While First Nations, Métis and Inuit leadership said they supported development, there were concerns that the method proposed to approve projects would override their rights.
On Wednesday, the government announced the membership of an Indigenous Advisory Council that will provide policy recommendations to the Major Projects Office.
The office itself will be responsible for conducting direct consultation with Indigenous rightsholders affected by potential projects. Indigenous communities can also access federal funding to participate in consultation, as well as federally backed loans to have a financial stake in development.
B.C. Premier David Eby called Indigenous opposition to LNG projects in the province a complicated topic. But his government believes there is potential for “billions of dollars of investments” and thousands of new jobs.
He welcomed news that B.C.-based projects made the first cut and told reporters that he will be in Ottawa next week to bring up other initiatives that should also be fast-tracked.
Ottawa’s approach seems certain to be fought in the courts.
On Thursday, the Quebec Environmental Law Centre said it filed an application with the Superior Court of Québec to challenge the validity of Bill C-5, which it says gives the federal government “excessive powers and jeopardizes both democracy and environmental protection.”
It wants Ottawa to revise it, saying Canada needs major projects but that there is no need to sacrifice essential environmental standards in the process.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre dismissed the federal government’s approach, saying it adds more bureaucracy and is not actually approving projects.
Mr. Poilievre repeated his view that existing Liberal government legislation stops the private sector from moving ahead with major projects and that Ottawa should simply repeal such legislation rather than creating loopholes through Bill C-5.
With reports from Nicolas Van Praet in Montreal, Emily Haws in Ottawa and Brent Jang in Vancouver
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