LNG project, mines, hydro dam, power lines among latest major project referrals

TERRACE, B.C. — The federal government announced Thursday the latest list of major building projects to be considered for fast-track approval under legislation passed in June — a list focused entirely on critical minerals and energy.

Prime Minister Mark Carney made the announcement in Terrace, B.C., a community that will be connected to the North Coast Transmissions Line, which was one of the projects put forward for possible fast-tracking.

It is intended to power local communities and projects like the Ksi Lisims LNG project, which was also on the list.

That project would feature a floating LNG facility and marine terminal, with a pipeline to move the product from northeast B.C. The proposal, which received federal environmental approval in September, has faced opposition from some First Nations groups which have launched court challenges to overturn Ottawa’s decision.

Carney was asked Thursday how the government plans to proceed with the project if First Nations aren’t on board.

“We’re encouraged with respect to Ksi Lisims in terms of the scale of Indigenous support across various groups,” Carney said, referring to the Nisga’a Nation, which is backing the project.

“We work in concert with all parties and we make things possible. We don’t dictate where projects are going to go in the end. Parties decide.”

The Ksi Lisims and the North Coast Transmissions Line are part of a larger strategy the government is putting forward for consideration to the Major Projects Office (MPO). Dubbed the “Northwest Critical Conservation Corridor,” the strategy also includes the Red Chris copper mine expansion, which was on the first list of projects Carney announced in September.

Also on the list announced Thursday is a proposed hydroelectric project in Iqaluit, which would help wean Nunavut’s capital off its diesel reliance. The project received $6 million in federal funding in February to help with engineering and design.

The project’s proponent, the Nunavut Nukkiksautiit Corporation, was in Ottawa two weeks ago lobbying to get it on the referral list to the MPO.

“There’s so many different ways the federal government can participate in these projects, like offtake agreements, or (providing) support financially,” Heather Shilton, the director at Nunavut Nukkiksautiit Corporation, told The Canadian Press during her visit to Ottawa at the time.

“Right now, we’re having conversations here and there. Some people are telling us maybe this is a possibility and maybe that is a possibility. At some point someone is going to have to tell us, ‘This is how I want to participate at the federal government level’ and then we can build that in to what we’re already planning.”

Following Thursday’s news, Shilton said being on the list also boosts investor confidence.

“We’re looking at private investment for this. We’re not necessarily looking at a grant to cover all of it,” she said Thursday.

Other projects announced Thursday include a proposed nickel mine in Ontario, a graphite mine in Quebec and a tungsten mine in New Brunswick.

The first list of projects referred to the MPO was announced in September. Most of them were energy and mine projects; an expansion project for the Port of Montreal was also on that list.

So far, no project has received the national interest designation, which would give it special treatment — such as exemptions from certain environmental laws — to help it move forward. Those laws include the Fisheries Act, the Species At Risk Act and the Impact Assessment Act.

Once a project is referred to the MPO, it is reviewed and returned with recommendations to the government, which has the final say on whether to give it the national interest designation.

Major Projects Office CEO Dawn Farrell said her office can help get the final approvals for a project nearing the end of the permitting line.

“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. So something that might have taken five or six more years can now take two years,” Farrell said, citing the Ontario nickel project as an example.

She said projects’ presence in the MPO pipeline would boost investor confidence.

“Our job is all about making sure that people get across the line, get everything they need to get built on time and on budget,” she said.

The federal budget tabled last week earmarked $213.8 million over five years for the office’s work. The government also plans legislation to make the office a separate entity — like a Crown corporation — rather than leaving it under the authority of the Privy Council Office.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, who had said she hoped to have a deal in place with Ottawa by this weekend on a new pipeline project, said she was “supportive” of the latest list.

“Currently, we are working on an agreement with the federal government that includes the removal, carve out or overhaul of several damaging laws chasing away private investment in our energy sector, and an agreement to work towards ultimate approval of a bitumen pipeline to Asian markets,” Smith said in a media statement.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre criticized Carney’s announcement in a speech in Kelowna, repeating his party’s stance that the government should repeal laws causing “bureaucratic delays.”

“Most of these projects were on the verge of happening anyway, as they have already gone through years and years of Liberal bureaucracy,” Poilievre said.

“So Mark Carney is really, when it comes to getting projects approved, he’s kind of like the rooster who thinks that he made the sun go up just because he crowed when the sun went up, right? He’s not actually getting anything done. He’s just showing up to take credit for things that were going to happen anyway.”

Ottawa’s latest list of projects also came in for criticism from environmental groups.

“National building projects should benefit everyday Canadians, but LNG primarily benefits foreign-owned industry players,” said Alex Walker, climate finance program manager with Environmental Defence.

“Ottawa is focused on giving subsidies to industries that are incompatible with a net-zero world and cannot compete with lower-cost alternatives, like renewables and cheaper LNG from existing producers. Saying that building LNG infrastructure is in the national interest is oxymoronic.”

The Building Canada Act, which gives the government the ability to designate projects of national interest, lists criteria the government can consider when choosing projects for special treatment — such as whether a project “contribute(s) to clean growth and to meeting Canada’s objectives with respect to climate change.”

The government also indicated in its budget that projects that receive the designation must contribute to Canada’s climate goals.

In a statement, West Coast Environmental Law said the projects the government has chosen so far don’t meet that condition.

“At a time when global carbon pollution is driving climate disasters around the world, and countries are working to build economies that move beyond oil and gas, it makes no sense for Canada to be fast-tracking another fossil fuel megaproject,” said Andrew Gage, a staff lawyer with the group.

“Calling projects like Ksi Lisims and LNG Canada in the ‘national interest’ ignores the harm they are causing to Canadians and the reality that they drive the climate crisis instead of solving it.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2025.

— With files from Nick Murray in Ottawa