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The federal government is expected to announce on Wednesday that it is planning to list a proposed highway in the Northwest Territories as a project of national interest, CBC News has learned.
Multiple sources confirm Ottawa will begin the process of designating the Mackenzie Valley Highway the status outlined in the controversial Building Canada Act.
This would be the first project Ottawa officially lists as in the national interest. It would allow the federal government to fast-track environmental reviews and federal permitting.
The announcement will be made in Yellowknife. Northwest Territories Premier R.J. Simpson and Nunavut Premier John Main will be on hand with three federal ministers to deliver the news.
The Mackenzie Valley Highway project would stretch from Wrigley, N.W.T., to Inuvik, N.W.T., offering an all-weather road connecting the territories’ remote communities and helping the military better protect the Arctic.
Prime Minister Mark Carney, who was born in Fort Smith, N.W.T., has said that ever since he was a kid he had been hearing about “the possibility” of the Mackenzie Valley Highway.
The national interest project designation, sources caution, will only happen after Ottawa conducts a consultation process. That process is expected to begin on Wednesday. Ottawa is legally obligated to consult with provincial/territorial governments and Indigenous communities whose rights “may be adversely affected.”
Two other projects, the Grays Bay Road and Port that runs through N.W.T. and Nunavut and a deep geological nuclear waste facility in northern Ontario, are also part of the announcement, although CBC News has not confirmed what will be said about those projects.
Proponents for a potential Deep Geological Repository (DGR) near Ignace, Ont., have met with officials from the federal Major Projects Office (MPO) several times in the past few months.
The Nuclear Waste Management Organization met with the office six times between April 20 and May 26, and the Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation did so five times between March 6 and May 8.
That project is currently being assessed through the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada and was mentioned in the newly released nuclear energy strategy.
The Grays Bay Road and Port was referred to the federal Major Projects Office in March. It is a proposed all-season road stretching from the Nunavut border to a deepwater port and airfield at Grays Bay on the Arctic Ocean.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has recommended the Grays Bay Road and Port project to the major projects office. But across Nunavut, there’s mixed feelings towards the decision. The CBC’s Mah Noor Mubarik has more.
While that project, and several others across the country, are already being supported by the Major Projects Office (MPO), none so far have been given the fast-tracking privileges that come with the national interest designation.
A referral to the MPO does not automatically mean a project is designated in the national interest. The office could help get a project across the finish line “on time and on budget,” CEO Dawn Farrell explained in November. That could include a streamlined permitting process, help with regulatory challenges or structured financing.
The sources spoke to CBC News on condition that they not be named because they were not authorized to speak about the projects yet.
The Building Canada Act, or Bill C-5, enables the federal government to override federal laws, environmental reviews and federal permitting rules to fast-track projects Ottawa deems to be nation building.
The Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board is currently assessing the proposed highway.
One source said when it comes to the proposed northern highway, Ottawa would not interfere with the North’s environmental and project development regime. These processes are fundamental components of the modern treaties that the federal government signed with Inuit and northern First Nations beginning in the 1970s.
Instead, once those territorial project assessments are complete, the federal government will use the powers under the Building Canada Act to approve federal permits required for the project “forthwith,” the source said.
