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.<\/p>\n
Multiple sources confirm Ottawa will begin the process of designating the Mackenzie Valley Highway the status outlined in the controversial Building Canada Act<\/a>.<\/p>\n This would be the first project Ottawa officially lists as in the national interest. It would allow the federal government to fast-track environmental reviews and federal permitting.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Prime Minister Mark Carney, who was born in Fort Smith, N.W.T., has said that ever since he was a kid he had been hearing about “the possibility” of the Mackenzie Valley Highway. <\/p>\n The national interest project designation, sources caution, will only happen after Ottawa conducts a consultation process. That process is expected to begin on Wednesday. Ottawa is legally obligated<\/a> to consult with provincial\/territorial governments and Indigenous communities whose rights “may be adversely affected.”<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Proponents for a potential Deep Geological Repository (DGR) near Ignace, Ont.<\/a>, have met with officials from the federal Major Projects Office (MPO) several times in the past few months.<\/p>\n The Nuclear Waste Management Organization met with the office six times between April 20 and May 26, and the Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation did so five times between March 6 and May 8.<\/p>\n