{"id":123097,"date":"2025-09-06T00:51:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T00:51:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/123097\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T00:51:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T00:51:07","slug":"draft-major-projects-list-not-good-enough-for-ontario-ford-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/123097\/","title":{"rendered":"Draft major projects list not good enough for Ontario, Ford says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

Ontario Premier Doug Ford<\/a> 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<\/a> on Friday. <\/p>\n

The list, which is a government document<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

Although not a final list, it provides a sense of the options on the government\u2019s radar.<\/p>\n

Internal government list of 32 potential infrastructure projects includes new oil pipeline<\/a><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The list also includes a proposed high-speed rail line linking Toronto and Quebec City.<\/p>\n

Mr. Ford said he discussed project plans with Mr. Carney at a meeting at the Premier\u2019s Toronto home.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s 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,\u201d Mr. Ford said. \u201cWe have to start moving faster, quick, immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe understands what we\u2019re looking for. And it was a very positive meeting,\u201d Mr. Ford told reporters at Queen\u2019s Park.<\/p>\n

Opinion: Doug Ford\u2019s detour around accountability<\/a><\/p>\n

Ontario\u2019s Highway 401 tunnel pitch<\/a> is not on the federal list. Nor is the Premier\u2019s request for a new James Bay deep sea port or funds to expand the GO regional transit system.<\/p>\n

However, the list does include a pipeline that would bring Alberta oil through northwest British Columbia to the Pacific Coast \u2013 a proposal that has been a source of contention between Alberta and B.C.<\/p>\n

Adrian Dix, B.C.\u2019s Minister of Energy and Climate Solutions, told reporters Friday that such a pipeline is \u201cnot a real project,\u201d and amounts to little more than a press release with no proponent, no budget and no realistic plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not even allowed right now. There\u2019s no First Nation support and there are way better options \u2026 for the Alberta oil industry,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

He said the final list should include projects that have investors, concrete plans and timelines, such as BC Hydro\u2019s northern transmission plan to support critical minerals development.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a time for fantasy politics. It\u2019s a time for serious politics and serious projects,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Opinion: A nation-building project list alone won\u2019t build a nation<\/a><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Finance Minister Fran\u00e7ois-Philippe Champagne was asked Friday if a new pipeline is on the table.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to make sure we bring our resources to market,\u201d he replied. \u201cI think, from my perspective, you should not exclude anything from the get-go.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cencouraging to see a pipeline to northern B.C. and the Pathways Alliance project\u201d for carbon capture and storage in The Globe\u2019s report, he said Alberta awaits \u201cfull commitment\u201d from Ottawa.<\/p>\n

At a news conference on Parliament Hill, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre dismissed the document as a \u201cdream list.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is, to be clear, not a list of projects Mark Carney supports. It\u2019s a list of projects that he wants to potentially consider looking at, and potentially referring to an office that isn\u2019t 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,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

NDP MP Leah Gazan said the Liberal government\u2019s approach to passing C-5 and identifying projects violates constitutional obligations to consult Indigenous peoples. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a number of First Nations leaders across the country that share these concerns,\u201d she said. \u201cI think because of their haste to get this through, they\u2019ve created a scenario where it\u2019s going to be very difficult to get projects off the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a report from Laura Stone in Mississauga<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Ontario Premier Doug Ford listed the Ring of Fire road and the Darlington…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123098,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,49,48,714],"class_list":{"0":"post-123097","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}