Ottawa to Begin National-Interest Review for Two Arctic Road Projects, None Yet Designated

Ottawa is expected to announce Wednesday that it will begin the process of designating two Arctic infrastructure projects as projects of national interest. The projects are the Grays Bay road and port project in Nunavut and the Mackenzie Valley highway project in the Northwest Territories. The announcement is scheduled for a news conference in Yellowknife.

Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon and Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Rebecca Alty are expected to lead the event, with Energy Minister Tim Hodgson also in attendance. The Grays Bay project includes a 230-kilometre all-season road through the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. The Mackenzie Valley highway project consists of an all-season road connecting Yellowknife to Inuvik.

Both projects were referred to the major projects office in March 2026. As of June 23, none of the 15 projects sent to the office have received national-interest designation or begun the designation process. Energy Minister Tim Hodgson is expected to provide an update on a deep geological repository for Canada’s nuclear waste.

In November 2024, the Township of Ignace and Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation area in northwestern Ontario were selected as locations for the repository. Prime Minister Mark Carney secured passage of the Building Canada Act through Parliament before the House of Commons rose in summer 2025.

The federal government committed in a November 2025 memorandum of understanding to designate a prospective oil pipeline to the West Coast as a project of national interest, with a deadline of July 1, 2026, for submission of an application.