Projects of national interest: wrong approach, wrong objective

The Carney government has doubled down on its extractivist agenda with the announcement of a second round of designated “projects of national importance.” The list includes several mining projects: the Sisson tungsten-molybdenum project in New Brunswick, the Nouveau Monde graphite project in Québec, and the Crawford nickel project in Ontario. This is on top of the previous designation of the Red Chris copper-gold mine expansion in British Columbia and the McIlvenna Bay copper project in Saskatchewan.

With this announcement, the government has solidified its commitment to resource extraction megaprojects as its vision of development, its capitulation to provincial premiers’ self–serving political priorities, and its contempt for the environment and Indigenous peoples’ rights. It has clearly identified its “critical minerals” strategy as prioritizing corporate profit and weapons production ahead of the renewable energy transition and the climate crisis, exposing energy transition rhetoric as smoke and mirrors.

This is a 19th century response to a 21st century crisis. Instead of focusing on initiatives to build economic and social resilience and sustainability in the face of a US trade war, climate chaos, biodiversity loss, and an affordability crisis, the federal government is shovelling public funds into shoring up corporate interests. True nation-building initiatives would include clean drinking water and adequate, energy-efficient housing for everyone, accessible and effective transit – and renewable energy. A meaningful response to US tariffs would be to invest in the “care economy” – badly needed health care, elder care, and social support capacity – and economic integration and diversification, not just redirecting and expanding raw material exports.

Interestingly, the “National Interest” designation under Bill C-5, the Building Canada Act, has not yet been applied. This would grant projects guaranteed approval under an expedited impact assessment process and limited Indigenous consultation (not consent, since approval would be predetermined) as well as exemptions from other laws including the Fisheries Act and the Species At Risk Act. Many of the projects designated so far have already been approved by federal authorities, or are well on the road to approval, while others may require no federal approval at all. What they all get with the “nation-building” designation is support from the mysterious Major Projects Office, established under the Building Canada Act, and access to federal (i.e. taxpayer) funding.

This approach is meant to attract private investment by “de-risking” these projects. The government “back-stops” projects by putting a pile of public money into them up front, and perhaps guaranteeing part of their sales through mechanisms like offtake agreements, so that private investors are protected from potential losses but still have most of the profits.

Rather than taking a comprehensive, coherent approach to securing supplies of specific minerals and metals, for example by establishing a central facility to establish stockpiles and guarantee prices, the government is arbitrarily picking individual projects to support, without clear criteria or public processes to ensure transparency and accountability, and to exclude corporate lobbying and political favouritism. Instead of  establishing a systemic approach to meet genuine needs – and improving, not bypassing, environmental and economic safeguards – projects are being fast-tracked based solely on back room negotiations between the federal and provincial governments.

This approach is guaranteed to cause problems. The Red Chris mine has already been found to have serious environmental and safety issues, and neither the original project nor the current expansion went through an environmental assessment. It was even recently highlighted on CBC TV’s The National.

Northcliff Resources’ Sisson project was approved by the federal government 8 years ago – despite a finding that it would have significant adverse environmental effects on traditional Indigenous land uses – but has failed to find financial backing. In addition to significant environmental impacts, it is an extremely low-grade deposit that will leave a massive amount – 99.9% of the mined material – on site as tailings, requiring safe management in perpetuity. And while the six Wolastoqey First Nations band councils signed an agreement with the company in 2017, that agreement has been eclipsed by the title claim filed by the six Nations in 2021 – and the Wolostoq Grand Council (traditional leadership) have strenuously opposed the project, as have local residents opposed to the project’s massive footprint, huge tailings dam, and plans to obliterate 2 pristine brooks.

The Nouveau Monde Graphite Matawinie project, meanwhile, has been strenuously opposed by local residents because of its destructive impacts – already being felt in the exploration phase – on the environment and the local economy.

Canada Nickel’s Crawford Nickel project, on the other hand, is only a few months away from completing the federal impact assessment process, and while concerns have been raised about contaminants seeping into nearby water bodies, it is unlikely that such concerns will derail the impact assessment. At the same time, the projected 40+ year life of the project makes it difficult to predict its impacts or plan for its eventual closure in a context of climate change, and there is no mechanism to provide for public engagement, technical review by independent experts, or the maintenance and renewal of Indigenous consent over that time.

The national interest is not served by pouring taxpayer money into corporate profits, and ripping up the country to make bombs and bullets is not in anyone’s interest except those who profit from it. Stabilizing the market for those “critical minerals” that are truly needed by society should be done by strengthening, not avoiding, Indigenous consent requirements, regulatory safeguards, and environmental planning and assessment.

Jamie Kneen is the Canada program co-lead with MiningWatch Canada, where a version of this story first appeared on November 13, 2025.