Prime Minister Mark Carney on Thursday announced another six major infrastructure projects as part of his ambitious plan to reduce Canada’s economic reliance on the United States after President Trump set off a trade war with its neighbor.
Mr. Trump last month abruptly suspended trade negotiations with Canada, which sends an overwhelming majority of its exports to the United States, after a Canadian province ran a commercial on American television that featured President Ronald Reagan speaking out against tariffs.
Since becoming prime minister in the spring, Mr. Carney has focused much of his efforts on expanding trade beyond the United States and starting major domestic projects to boost the country’s economy.
He most recently traveled to Asia, where he became the first Canadian prime minister in eight years to meet with Xi Jinping, China’s top leader, in an attempt to thaw the relations between the countries.
At the same time, Mr. Carney has emphasized a need to build projects “that will define the next century,” citing major efforts after World War II, like the St. Lawrence Seaway, as examples.
He opened the Major Projects Office that he had said would ensure all necessary approvals for priority projects were in place within two years rather than the decade or longer they usually take. The government will also work on arranging construction funding.
That accelerated process, however, has been met with resistance from environmentalists and legal challenges from Indigenous groups claiming that it violates their land rights.
While Mr. Carney says his infrastructure strategy will put “the country into position for the energy future,” the projects he announced on Thursday evoke the nation’s past as an exporter of natural resources.
They included a new liquefied natural gas plant, pipeline and an electrical power transmission line in northern British Columbia; three mines in three provinces; and a hydroelectric dam as an alternative to diesel fuel for electric power in the far northern territory of Nunavut.
Mr. Carney had previously announced a batch of projects in September, including the development of two copper mines and the construction of a nuclear reactor and a container port.
Two of the mines fast-tracked on Thursday will produce graphite and nickel, both minerals in demand for electric vehicle batteries.
“Those projects are projects that strengthen Canada’s autonomy, our independence, strengthen our resilience, strengthen our security,” Mr. Carney said at a news conference in Terrace, British Columbia. “The Major Projects Office is helping to build Canada smarter and quicker, fast-tracking infrastructure that we need to unlock our country’s immense resources and potential.”
In response to questions about resistance from some Indigenous communities, Mr. Carney said project approvals would hinge on local Indigenous communities being involved as investors, a process the government will help fund.
At least two Indigenous groups have taken the government to court over its new review process.
Mr. Carney emphasized that the accelerated procedure does not guarantee approval.
“It means that all the efforts are being put in place from the federal government in order to create the conditions so it could move forward,” he said. “But those decisions are taken by many parties, including very much First Nations. So if the First Nations continue to oppose them, then there’s a chance these projects will not go through.”
Several environmental groups were critical of the projects and government’s new process.
“We are here to contribute to build projects that help communities and Canadians to be more resilient in the face of economic impacts but also rising climate impact,” said Caroline Brouillette, the executive director of the Climate Action Network Canada. “However, it seems that both in substance and in approach, Prime Minister Carney is not building the right thing, the right way.”
Still, Chris Severson-Baker, the executive director of the Pembina Institute, an environmental group in Alberta, supported the projects.
“Today’s announcement recognizes the moral and economic imperative in readying Canada to lead in the low-carbon world, even as some of the new projects will result in significant increases in emissions,” he said in a statement.
He noted, however, that because of an expected flood of liquefied natural gas into the world market, the gas project is an “increasingly risky economic bet.” He added that if it is approved, it should not be publicly subsidized.
None of the projects pushed forward by Mr. Carney will offer much relief to workers in certain industries, like auto, whose jobs are imperiled by Mr. Trump’s tariffs on Canadian exports, said Walid Hejazi, a professor of economics at the University of Toronto.
But Mr. Hejazi said that the announced projects suggested that the government was shifting away from Canada’s traditional practice of exporting raw materials and that he hoped for the development of industries that would turn them into energy-related products within Canada, like batteries for electric vehicles.
“We’re going to try to keep and create those jobs here,” he said. “Now, the problem is that these are dirty industries, so we have to think a lot more about that.”
Ian Austen reports on Canada for The Times. A Windsor, Ontario, native now based in Ottawa, he has reported on the country for two decades. He can be reached at [email protected].
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