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.
Three sources confirm Ottawa will begin the process of designating the Mackenzie Valley Highway the status outlined in the Building Canada Act.
This would be the first project Ottawa has officially designated in the national interest. The listing 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.
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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.
The national interest project designation, sources caution, will only happen after Ottawa conducts a consultation process. That process is expected to begin on Wednesday.
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.
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.
While that project, and several others across the country, are already being supported by the Major Projects Office, none so far have been given the fast-tracking privileges that come with the national interest designation.
The sources spoke to CBC News on condition that they not be named because they were not authorized to speak about the projects yet.
