Residents walk down the hill to their home in the town of Gjoa Haven, Nunavut, in September, 2017.JASON FRANSON/The Canadian Press
Ottawa on Wednesday named the first three projects it intends to fast-track under the Building Canada Act, advancing a key priority of the Carney government even as uncertainty remained about other aspects of its infrastructure push.
All three of the projects are in northern locations. The government said they would potentially be listed under the act in the fall, which would mean declaring them as being in the national interest. That designation would remove some hurdles to federal approval and in theory accelerate their construction timelines.
Two of the projects have previously been referred to the federal Major Projects Office: the Mackenzie Valley Highway Project in the Northwest Territories and the Grays Bay Road and Port Project in Nunavut.
Federal ministers announced Wednesday in Yellowknife that the third project to be fast-tracked, a nuclear waste deep storage project in northwestern Ontario, is now also being referred to the Major Projects Office.
Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson said the process gives companies certainty by telling them upfront that a project has political support from Ottawa.
“What a listing does is it says after the consultation around the listing, we move the political decision up in that process and we give people clarity,” he said at a news conference about the announcement. “This is a practical way about how we will get big things built again.”
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Last year the government established the Major Projects Office as a single point of contact for its nation-building agenda. Ottawa has since referred 16 projects to the office – including the nuclear waste site announced Wednesday – along with seven “transformative strategies” that encompass more than one project.
But critics have accused the government of moving too slowly to advance its infrastructure plans. Wednesday’s announcement did not include an update on other projects that have been referred to the Major Projects Office, and more consultation would be required before the first three projects could be designated as being in the national interest.
Mr. Hodgson announced Wednesday’s plan alongside Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon, Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Rebecca Alty and Northwest Territories Premier R.J. Simpson.
The Premier stressed that streamlining federal approvals does not remove the territory’s obligations to consult Indigenous governments through a co-management system connected to land-claim agreements.
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“If we are deemed a project of national interest, that does not impact our regulatory system,” he said. “We have robust environmental protections, robust regulatory systems based on modern treaties, and that will be respected throughout the process.”
Mr. Carney’s government introduced and passed the Building Canada Act, also known as Bill C-5, a year ago.
The act allows cabinet to list specific projects as being in the national interest, which is intended to fast-track federal regulatory approvals.
The text of the law says that once a project is designated as being in the national interest, “every determination and finding that has to be made … is deemed to be made or formed, as the case may be, in favour of permitting the project.”
The law requires a consultation period to take place with other levels of government and affected Indigenous communities prior to designation, which is the process ministers announced Wednesday.
The Nuclear Waste Management Organization’s Deep Geological Repository project is in northwest Ontario near Ignace, and near Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation.
The project proposes a network of tunnels and placement rooms between 650 and 800 metres underground to contain used nuclear fuel from Canadian reactors. The project is entirely funded by Canadian nuclear waste owners.
The project proponent is the NWMO, a not-for-profit organization established by Canada’s nuclear electricity producers, including Ontario Power Generation, New Brunswick Power and Hydro-Québec.
The Mackenzie Valley Highway Project was referred to the Major Projects Office in March. It is a proposed all-season road that would run from Wrigley to the Dempster Highway. It would reduce travel times between Yellowknife and Inuvik by about 15 hours. The highway would also connect two expanding NORAD Forward Operating Locations in Yellowknife and Inuvik.
The Grays Bay Road and Port Project is in the Kitikmeot Region in Nunavut. The proponent is the West Kitikmeot Resource Corporation. It was also referred to the Major Projects Office in March.
It proposes a 230-kilometre all-season road to Grays Bay as well as a deepwater port and aerodrome on the Arctic Ocean and a possible connection to broader infrastructure through the Arctic Economic and Security Corridor.
University of Calgary associate professor David V. Wright, who is chair in environment, societies and law, said Ottawa needs to explain why only three of the projects referred to the Major Projects Office are taking this additional step toward designation as projects of national interest.
“I think it’s still too early to tell if this fast-tracking agenda is going to work,” he said in an interview. “One year from now is going to really tell us a lot more about whether or not it’s just a paper exercise in political theatre or actually delivering on the fast-tracking agenda.”
Prof. Wright said one of the challenges Ottawa will face is situations in which not all Indigenous communities are supportive of a particular project that is designated for fast-tracking.
“There’s no question that there is some sucking and blowing here where the federal government is saying: ‘Hey, we can fast-track these projects, we can smooth out the regulatory review and approval process through this one project, one review approach, while also satisfying our constitutional consultation and accommodation obligations and duties.’ The latter cannot be rushed.”
Conservative MPs voted in favour of the Building Canada Act last year, but the party has also called on Ottawa to remove laws that hinder investment rather than granting one-off exemptions.
Conservative MP Shannon Stubbs, the party’s natural resources critic, criticized the Liberal government Wednesday for creating the “illusion” of action when in fact no project launch has been announced.
In a statement, she pointed out that Mr. Carney promised last year that his government would build at unprecedented speed.
“Instead, Canadians got the same Liberal delay, bureaucracy, and spin that block jobs, resources, investment and infrastructure,” she said.