Prime Minister Mark Carney has laid out the details of what he says are the first series of major projects in the “national interest” aimed at boosting Canada’s economy, creating jobs and reducing reliance on the United States.
This comes as U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war, brought on by his administration’s tariff policies, has led to higher costs for Canadian businesses to operate and sent ripple effects across the economy. This includes a recent drop in Canada’s gross domestic product (GDP) and impacts on the labour force, with unemployment rising above seven per cent in August.
These projects are aimed at various sectors, identified as energy, materials, and shipping and logistics.
“To strengthen Canada’s independence, our resilience, our security, we will build with Canadian steel, Canadian lumber, Canadian aluminum, and by Canadian tradespeople and engineers,” Carney said.
“We will be our own best customer. So today, Canada’s new government is announcing the first set of projects that we believe are both in Canada’s national interest and are feasible to be built.”
Here’s what we know so far.
LNG expansion in northern B.C.
The first major project outlined by Carney in his announcement focused on liquefied natural gas (LNG), which is a valuable commodity that can be produced in Canada for power generation domestically as well as abroad, because it can be shipped overseas to parts of Europe and Asia in particular.
Carney says his government will work to expand LNG production in northern British Columbia to make Canada an “energy superpower,” and added that the emissions from the project will be lower compared with other global facilities.
“This project will double LNG Canada’s production capacity and make it the second largest liquefied natural gas facility of its kind in the world,” Carney said.
“It will diversify our trading partners, help meet global demand for secure, low-carbon energy and support tens of thousands of new high-paying careers. And leveraging Canada’s sustainable advantage, its emissions are projected to be 35 per cent lower than the world’s best-performing LNG facilities and 60 per cent lower than the global average.”
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In a separate release, the Prime Minister’s Office says LNG Canada Phase 2 will attract funding from the private sector, and that it will contribute to GDP growth, jobs and economic growth in local communities as well.
The second project Carney outlined in his announcement Thursday is expanding the current Darlington nuclear power plant in southern Ontario to make Canada the first G7 country with an operational small modular reactor (SMR).
Carney says the project can support Canadian and global energy needs and inject “$500 million annually into Ontario’s nuclear supply chain.”
“The second project is the Darlington new nuclear Phase 1. Once complete, Darlington’s first of four planned SMR units will provide reliable, affordable, clean power to 300,000 homes while sustaining 3,700 jobs every year over the next 65 years and all of that in addition to 18,000 skill trade jobs during construction,” Carney said Thursday.
“At its full potential, Darlington’s SMRs will provide enough electricity to reliably and safely power 1.2 million homes, more than the total number of households in Edmonton and Calgary combined.”
The Prime Minister’s Office also says the Darlington project will set the stage for Canada to become a global leader in deploying SMR technology for use worldwide.
Port of Montreal expansion
In eastern Quebec, the Contrecoeur Terminal Container Project is aimed at expanding the Port of Montreal’s capacity by 60 per cent.
In the press release, the Prime Minister’s Office says this will effectively expand the trading infrastructure for all of Eastern Canada and help diversify trading routes.
Having an expanded shipping port, the release says, will also strengthen supply chains, create thousands of jobs, and generate $140 million annually for the local and national economies.
Critical minerals mining and processing
Carney outlined the details of the fourth and fifth projects on the horizon as ones focused on the critical minerals sector, including in parts of Saskatchewan, Quebec and northwest B.C.
That work will support the McIlvenna Bay Foran copper mine in east-central Saskatchewan and the Red Chris copper and gold mine in northwestern British Columbia.
“This will strengthen Canada’s position as a global supplier of critical minerals for clean energy, advanced manufacturing and modern infrastructure,” Carney said.
Extraction of critical minerals is expected to play a key role in Canada’s domestic economy, and Carney said the plans announced Thursday help to diversify trading partners aimed at developing clean energy infrastructure and advanced manufacturing.
Uses for critical minerals include batteries and energy storage, like those for electric vehicles, as well as semiconductor chips used in electronics and components for wind and solar energy. Some, like copper, are valuable critical minerals with even wider applications.
Carney added that the major projects office will also be tasked with beginning “close consideration of the proposed new Northwest Critical Conservation Corridor.”
“This is an initiative that presents multiple opportunities for critical minerals development and clean power transmission, including potential interties to the Yukon and Alberta,” he said.
He said the projects will be working in close collaboration with Indigenous communities, including the Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation in Saskatchewan and the Tahltan Nation in B.C.
The release from the Prime Minister’s Office says that, combined, all of these projects represent investments in Canada’s economy of more than $60 billion.
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