Ontario Premier Doug Ford listed the Ring of Fire road and the Darlington project as priorities, called for more pipelines and an up-to 60-kilometre tunnel underneath Highway 401.PATRICK DOYLE/The Canadian Press
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said a draft list reported by The Globe and Mail of 32 potential major projects to fast-track across the country is not good enough for his province and that he discussed the issue directly with Prime Minister Mark Carney on Friday.
The list, which is a government document obtained by The Globe, describes potential projects based on proposals Ottawa has received from premiers and others in recent months. It covers all provinces and territories, and includes ports, roads, bridges, mines and a range of energy projects.
Although not a final list, it provides a sense of the options on the government’s radar.
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Only three of the projects are exclusively in Ontario: a nickel mine near Timmins, an access road to mining claims in the remote northern Ring of Fire region and a plan to build new small modular reactors at the Darlington Nuclear Generating Station.
The list also includes a proposed high-speed rail line linking Toronto and Quebec City.
Mr. Ford said he discussed project plans with Mr. Carney at a meeting at the Premier’s Toronto home.
“Let’s see if that list is real. I had a conversation with the Prime Minister over at the house today. I had a good conversation with him, telling him [about] the important infrastructure projects,” Mr. Ford said. “We have to start moving faster, quick, immediately.”
He listed the Ring of Fire road and the Darlington project as priorities. He also called for more pipelines and repeated his call for an up-to 60-kilometre tunnel underneath the Toronto-area stretch of Highway 401, a concept experts have warned could cost $60-billion to $120-billion and do little to reduce congestion.
“He understands what we’re looking for. And it was a very positive meeting,” Mr. Ford told reporters at Queen’s Park.
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Ontario’s Highway 401 tunnel pitch is not on the federal list. Nor is the Premier’s request for a new James Bay deep sea port or funds to expand the GO regional transit system.
However, the list does include a pipeline that would bring Alberta oil through northwest British Columbia to the Pacific Coast – a proposal that has been a source of contention between Alberta and B.C.
Adrian Dix, B.C.’s Minister of Energy and Climate Solutions, told reporters Friday that such a pipeline is “not a real project,” and amounts to little more than a press release with no proponent, no budget and no realistic plan.
“It’s not even allowed right now. There’s no First Nation support and there are way better options … for the Alberta oil industry,” he said.
Mr. Dix emphasized that the list reported by The Globe is a draft, and said he has seen various iterations of it during his discussions with Ottawa.
He said the final list should include projects that have investors, concrete plans and timelines, such as BC Hydro’s northern transmission plan to support critical minerals development.
“This is not a time for fantasy politics. It’s a time for serious politics and serious projects,” he said.
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Parliament approved Bill C-5, the Building Canada Act, in June. It allows the government to designate specific projects as being in the national interest, meaning they can then qualify for a faster approval process. Inclusion on the list does not necessarily mean the project would receive federal funding.
The process will be overseen by a new Major Projects Office based in Calgary. The Prime Minister recently said the government will soon start to name specific projects for review.
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne was asked Friday if a new pipeline is on the table.
“We need to make sure we bring our resources to market,” he replied. “I think, from my perspective, you should not exclude anything from the get-go.”
The minister said he could not comment directly on the Globe report, but that any project under Bill C-5 will be subject to a rigorous assessment process and broad consultations.
Alberta Energy Minister Brian Jean said in a statement that the provincial government is still waiting to see the list. And while he called it “encouraging to see a pipeline to northern B.C. and the Pathways Alliance project” for carbon capture and storage in The Globe’s report, he said Alberta awaits “full commitment” from Ottawa.
At a news conference on Parliament Hill, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre dismissed the document as a “dream list.”
“This is, to be clear, not a list of projects Mark Carney supports. It’s a list of projects that he wants to potentially consider looking at, and potentially referring to an office that isn’t even yet set up that might one day decide to approve them. And that after that, they might one day begin construction. But so far, absolutely nothing is getting built,” he said.
NDP MP Leah Gazan said the Liberal government’s approach to passing C-5 and identifying projects violates constitutional obligations to consult Indigenous peoples.
“There’s a number of First Nations leaders across the country that share these concerns,” she said. “I think because of their haste to get this through, they’ve created a scenario where it’s going to be very difficult to get projects off the ground.”
With a report from Laura Stone in Mississauga