Since it launched in September, the Carney government’s Major Projects Office (MPO) has been busy. 

The agency assessed over 140 of the 500 or so submissions made to its online portal, looking for those that could align with the federal nation-building goals. 

It also had to prioritize and review 11 projects deemed nationally significant by Prime Minister Mark Carney, including new nuclear technology like small modular reactors at the Darlington plant.

The MPO’s mandate is to accelerate the development of projects by co-ordinating between different regulatory agencies and financial institutions. But recent meetings between MPO staff and Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation suggest its mandate could be even broader than that.

In 2024 the First Nation, along with the neighbouring township of Ignace, were selected to host Canada’s deep geological repository (DGR) for nuclear waste. 

The completion of that project is critical for current and future nuclear energy projects.

It is the only long-term storage solution for the 2.8 million used fuel bundles that currently exist across the country, and the many more to come as nuclear energy takes centre stage in net-zero strategies.

The DGR is also set to be located in a region hard hit by the decline of the forestry industry, where high paying job opportunities tend to be more scarce.

MPO involved in projects beyond those listed by Carney

But the project hasn’t been publicly identified as being in the national interest, and it’s also not been named in various internal federal briefing memos listing such potential projects. 

Yet MPO Vice-President Rob Van Walleghem met with Wabigoon leadership twice last fall, as the First Nation seeks investments in infrastructure, housing, roads, utilities, broadband and emergency services to host the waste.

The requests involve a contentious treaty matter and a wide range of federal government departments, and the MPO is helping the community navigate that. 

Jacob Gorenkoff, CEO and founder of Homeward, the public affairs firm representing the First Nation in Ottawa, says the MPO is moving and problem-solving much faster than what he’s seen before in federal bureaucracy.

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The Nuclear Waste Management Organization is also welcoming the involvement of the MPO in its engagement with Wabigoon.

“As a project proponent, seeing the Crown engaging early with rights holders is important,” spokesperson Dakota Kochie tells iPolitics. 

But he adds that the organization is not interested in obtaining an official referral to the MPO, or a national interest status under the Building Canada Act that could override federal impact assessment requirements. 

It is therefore unclear why the nuclear waste repository ended up on Van Walleghem’s desk, but a scenario note to Natural Resources Canada Minister Tim Hodgson ahead of the Métis summit on Bill C-5 in August offers a clue. 

The note, obtained by iPolitics through an access to information request, spells out how Hogdson should explain the role of the MPO to Indigenous groups.

“The [MPO] will be the main point of contact for project proponents,” reads the note. 

“It will also serve as a coordinating body that provides regulatory oversight and ensures meaningful Indigenous consultation on major projects.”

Meeting with other high-profile projects

The MPO has also met with Bruce Power, a private nuclear energy company that supplies about 30 per cent of Ontario’s electricity. 

The company would like to see its proposed new nuclear build project, known as Bruce C, officially referred to the MPO for a national interest designation.

It has repeatedly told Ottawa it would like to see the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) as the sole regulator of the nuclear sector. 

The Ontario government has also told Minister Hodgson they would like nuclear energy projects to be exempt from the Impact Assessment process. 

Currently, Bruce C is being assessed in a joint process that involves both the Impact Assessment Agency and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, who hope to potentially complete the review of the project within three years.

This is somewhat of a fast-tracked timeline, and is a significant concern for the Saugeen Ojibway Nation, the traditional rightholders of the territory encompassing the Bruce Power site. 

“That the studies under the federal impact assessment process could be completed within a few months and their results analyzed and summarized within the year is unreasonable,” reads a project submission letter from the Joint Chiefs and Councils of the Saugeen Ojibway Nation, who has called for more in-depth studies on the impact of nuclear intensification on their territory.

Projects that are designated as being in the national interest under the Building Canada Act see their federal review timelines reduced to a maximum of two years.

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