Since the Carney government announced plans to designate the Mackenzie Valley Highway as being in the national interest, Northwest Territories Deputy Premier Caroline Wawzonek says she’s had to field a lot of questions about what that designation actually brings.

“There’s a sense of, what does this even do? Why does it matter?” she told iPolitics.

Under the Building Canada Act, projects with a national interest designation can access a regulatory shortcut: all federal approvals are bundled into a single conditions document instead of requiring separate permits from different departments.

Ottawa intends to consult on designation of three projects, including the Mackenzie Valley Highway, over the summer before officially designating in the fall.

But the federal government has very limited power when it comes to fast-tracking the environmental assessment of the Mackenzie Valley Highway, as the review falls under the purview of independent co-management boards created out of modern land claim agreements.

In the technical briefing, officials acknowledged the federal government has no jurisdiction over those reviews, but argued that designation carries value beyond regulatory streamlining.

They suggested the designation could itself serve as a signal to attract mining investment to the area. They also suggested designation could signal federal priority status and potentially influence how funding programs are allocated — while clarifying that being listed under the Act neither guarantees financing nor makes a project more likely to receive it than one simply referred to the Major Projects Office.

But Wawzonek sees it differently.

“While it may not be a formal budgetary thing in the federal parlance it certainly for me does indicate consistent and sustained attention, which requires consistent and sustained budgeting decisions,” she said.

“I would suggest it opens up the ability for me to go to counterparts in Ottawa and say: in order for us to continue to achieve your political goals, which you are making known (…), then we do need to continue to perceive commensurate attention on the budgetary side.”

Assessment process still in the early stages

The environmental assessment for the $1.6 billion Mackenzie Valley Highway is not yet complete.

Work is fairly advanced on the first segment, from Wrigley to Norman Wells, while assessment of the second half — from Norman Wells to Inuvik — is still in the very early stages.

In a letter to the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board, the Member of the Legislative Assembly for the Sahtu, Danny McNeely, expressed concerns that a separate environmental assessment for the second phase could delay the project.

“I believe there is a clear opportunity to build on the substantial work completed to date and identify a practical pathway that advances the project efficiently while maintaining regulatory integrity,” he wrote

He said Sahtu leadership believes recognizing prior assessment efforts and proceeding to permitting and construction aligns with the objectives of the Building Canada Act.

He expressed concerns that delays could reduce certainty and hurt the long-term viability of the project.

The Northwest Territories government is hoping the review board can move towards a “corridor-based approach” that would expand the scope of the current assessment process to include the Norman Wells to Inuvik segment.

This would avoid the need for final route-level details at this stage, he wrote.

“From the Sahtu perspective, it is critical that the EA process advances in a manner that … supports [NWT] and partners in pursuing federal funding tied to project readiness and regulatory certainty.”

Wawzonek says the idea of a corridor-based approach is relatively new, and her government wants to improve the regulatory environment generally.

“I think it will be one of the benefits of doing this, it’s an opportunity to look at what we can do to better streamline any major project, or any, even just significant projects.”