Prime Minister

Mark Carney

says his government’s Major Projects Office is fast-tracking five nation-building projects that represent investments of more than $60 billion and create thousands of well-paying jobs by streamlining regulatory assessment and approvals and helping to structure financing.

“With the first in a series of new projects, we will build big, build now, and build Canada strong,” he said in a statement on Thursday.

Carney also said there are other projects under consideration, but they require further development before his government will decide whether to fast-track them. They include a

critical minerals strategy

; a

wind energy project

in Atlantic Canada; the Pathways Plus

carbon capture, utilization and storage project

and pipeline in Alberta; an Arctic economic and security corridor; upgrading the Port of Churchill in Manitoba to expand trade corridors; and a high-speed rail line between Toronto and Quebec City.

Here’s what you need to know about the five projects that are being fast-tracked by the government.

LNG Canada Phase 2

LNG Canada Phase 2 will double the production capacity of Canada’s first

liquefied natural gas

(LNG) export terminal to 28 million tonnes a year from 14 million tonnes by adding two massive LNG processing units to the

Shell PLC

-led plant in Kitimat, B.C.

Already one of the most significant energy projects in Canadian history, the price tag for the first phase of

LNG Canada

was roughly $40 billion — the largest private-sector investment in the country — and included significant cost overruns from the construction of

TC Energy Corp.

‘s

Coastal GasLink pipeline

.

The cost of the expansion, which would not require a new pipeline, has not been announced and the project has not yet received a final investment decision by its joint-venture partners, including Shell, Malaysia’s

Petroliam Nasional Berhad

, PetroChina Co. Ltd., Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp. and Korea Gas Corp.

“(The LNG project) will diversify Canada’s trade partners, help meet the growing global demand for secure, low-carbon energy, and support tens of thousands of new high-paying careers,” Carney said. “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.”

The first phase of LNG Canada alone is expected to spur a 0.4 per cent increase in Canada’s gross domestic product, according to the British Columbia government.

LNG Canada, which took almost seven years to be built, shipped its first cargo at the end of June, some 13 years after its proponents first submitted an application to federal regulators for a licence to export LNG.

South Korea has been the biggest buyer of Canadian LNG in the first three months of operations, snapping up seven shipments compared with two each by Japan and China, according to RBC Capital Markets’ LNG tanker tracking data.

However, the facility has yet to deliver a much longed-for uplift in gas prices for producers in Canada’s oilpatch. Technical problems have delayed the ramp-up to full production and the facility has yet to make a significant dent in the glut of natural gas in Western Canada that has kept prices low for months for much of the year.

Estimated cost

: Not disclosed.

Economic benefit

: A potential meaningful lift to the national economy and better prices for natural gas producers.

Completion

: Early 2030s.

— Meghan Potkins, Financial Post

Red Chris Mine expansion

Red Chris produces a commodity that’s in exceptionally high demand:

copper

. Its open-pit mine spans 230 square kilometres in northwest B.C. and produces about 11 million tonnes of copper per year and varying quantities of gold.

It’s operated by Colorado-based

Newmont Corp.

, which owns a 70 per cent stake in the project, with Vancouver’s Imperial Metals Corp. owning the remaining 30 per cent.

The mine opened in 2015 with an expectation to last 28 years. A $2-billion underground expansion would ensure the project lasts for an extra decade and boost the province’s copper production by 15 per cent.

Global markets are hungry for copper, which is an essential component in green energy technologies, such as electric vehicles. In 2023, Canadian exports of copper and copper-based products were valued at $9.4 billion, according to Natural Resources Canada.

The proposed expansion was among the 18 projects close to shovel-ready in B.C. that Premier David Eby identified earlier this year as a way to help pull the economy away from a dependence on the United States.

Carney said his government will work closely with the nearby Tahltan Nation, calling the project “an important step in reconciliation and further developing the potential of Northern B.C.”

A decision from the Tahltan Nation and B.C.’s Environmental Assessment Office could come by the end of 2025, pending Newmont and Imperial Metals’ final investment decision.

Estimated cost

: $2 billion.

Economic benefit

: Would ensure the project lasts for an extra decade and boost the province’s copper production by 15 per cent.

Completion date

: To be determined.

— Steven Wilhelm, Calgary Herald

McIlvenna Bay Foran Copper Mine

Foran Mining Corp.’s McIlvenna Bay project will extract copper and zinc, two critical minerals, in east-central Saskatchewan. The company’s licence area of 20,900 hectares encompasses a massive deposit in the Flin Flon Greenstone Belt, a region rich in copper, zinc, gold and other precious and critical mineral metals.

The project reached the feasibility stage in 2022, with construction beginning in July 2024. Vancouver-based Foran, which owns 100 per cent of the project, expects commercial production to begin in mid-2026 and the mine will have an expected lifespan of up to 40 years.

The mine is billed as Canada’s first

net-zero copper mining project

and projects extraction of up to 4,200 tonnes of copper and zinc daily. Power from two local hydroelectric dams will reduce operating emissions, while a fleet of underground electric vehicles will provide low-emission transportation.

Estimated cost

: $1.08 billion.

Economic benefits

: The mine is expected to create 400 full-time jobs, including jobs and economic development benefits for Indigenous communities. It will also benefit Quebec, where the copper will be smelted.

Completion

: Mid-2026.

— Rob O’Flanagan, Saskatoon Star-Phoenix

Montreal Port: Contrecoeur Terminal Container

The Montreal Port expansion features the construction of a new terminal on industrial land in Contrecoeur, Que., that would be able to handle 1.15 million 20-foot containers every year, thereby increasing the port’s capacity by 60 per cent. The additional terminal is needed because the Montreal Port Authority estimates the Montreal Island terminals will soon reach full capacity.

The Contrecoeur terminal will consist of two berths and a container handling area, an intermodal marshalling yard connected to the main rail network, a truck gate connected to the road network and support facilities.

The planning stage for this project has lasted for more than a decade and consultations have been made with the public and the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada. The project was approved by the environment ministry in 2021. The project has promised funding from many entities, including $300 million from the Canada Infrastructure Bank, $150 million from the federal government and $130 million from Quebec.

Estimated cost

: $1 billion-plus.

Economic benefits

: Proponents of the project said it will create 8,000 direct and indirect jobs during the construction phase and provide $140 million in economic spinoffs and 1,000 permanent jobs once operational.

Completion

: 2030.

— Jordan Gowling, Financial Post

Darlington SMR, Phase 1

Ontario Power Generation

in May started construction on North America’s first small modular nuclear reactor (SMR), a first-of-its-kind technology that has been in planning for nearly a decade. Historically,

nuclear projects

have taken years, decades even, to complete. Part of the appeal of an SMR is that it is smaller in size and scope and therefore easier to finance and build.

In theory, once a single SMR is built, it can be replicated and reproduced on other sites more easily than traditional nuclear reactors, which have been tailor-designed for their specific site location. This SMR is a 300-megawatt nuclear reactor and the first of four that OPG hopes to build at the Darlington site, which will eventually produce enough power for 1.2 million homes.

Ontario is expecting its electricity demand to rise by 75 per cent by 2050, and the province is under pressure to secure more power. Carney and others have also pushed nuclear technology as a potential source of value for the economy, particularly if Canada can export some of its products and expertise to help other provinces or countries service their nuclear sector.

“By moving early, and at scale, we can take advantage of Canadian expertise to build value chains at home, maximizing the number of jobs for our skilled tradespeople and engineers,” he said.

Estimated cost

: $6.1 billion for Phase I and $20.9 billion for all four SMRs.

Economic benefit

: Proponents of the project say it will drive $500 million in annual economic benefits, create 18,000 construction jobs, sustain 3,700 jobs annually for the next 65 years and

 provide power to 300,000 homes

.

Completion

: 2030.

— Gabriel Friedman, Financial Post

  • Ottawa eyes mega offshore wind project in Nova Scotia
  • Canadians hit the brakes on EV purchases in second quarter even as overall auto sales remain brisk