Good Sunday Morning! Sending you greetings of “Happy Pride!” as I march today in Toronto with Ontario Greens and leader Mike Schreiner. And an early wish for Wednesday, Happy Canada Day! June raced by, and as I have experienced since 2011, June is an exhausting push by government after government to pass legislation before summer recess, with everyone acting as though the calendar had escaped their notice until the last moment. Still, this June has been especially brutal. And strangely, it was after Parliament adjourned that more and worrying projects were announced.
We adjourned Thursday, and only days later, on Monday June 22, avoiding parliamentary questions, the Carney administration announced it would accelerate the development of nuclear power, setting out a goal of building up to ten new large-scale reactors, and streamlining approvals for future projects. The strategy, announced by Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson, aims to develop a new CANDU design with two nuclear reactors under construction by 2035 and five more planned or under development by 2040.
While the strategy includes no new funding, the government said it will release a policy by April 2027 outlining conditions for federal support and the financing tools available for new nuclear projects. A year ago June, in debate in Parliament, I asked Minister Hodgson, following one of his now all-too-familiar cheerleading speeches for more nukes, if there would be time to review impartial studies of the pros and cons of betting billions on nuclear energy. His response was that “this government supports nuclear energy,” leaving me to conclude there would be no debate nor independent review.
Interestingly, there was a clarifying statement from the Prime Minister’s Office this week that Mark Carney had played no role in these decisions due to the ethics screen required to avoid illegal conflicts of interest. Mr. Carney has a vast and complex web of investments—far above the norm of previous PM’s. Former Clerk of Privy Council Michael Wernick called the extent of our PM’s investment portfolio “unprecedented.” When it comes to nuclear issues, it turns out Brookfield owns General Electric, which along with Hitachi and Atkins Realis (formerly SNC Lavalin) is building the Darlington project with four “small modular reactors.” Last year the government announced that on top of the one billion dollar loan from Canada’s Infrastructure Bank, the Darlington project was getting a further $2 billion, and not as a loan. I am sure Duff Conacher at Democracy Watch will verify that the PM also recused himself from that largesse, but having appointed Tim Hodgson, formerly of Hydro One and an old friend of the PM from Goldman Sachs as his Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, regardless of who was on the bridge, the ship of state was on a course for more fossil fuels and nuclear energy.
On Wednesday June 24, major projects for fast-tracking were announced, including more nuclear major projects: the Mackenzie Valley Highway Project, the Grays Bay Road and Port Project, and the Nuclear Waste Management Organization’s (NWMO)’s Deep Geological Repository (DGR)—as projects of national interest under Bill C-5.
This will be the first use of Bill C-5, passed into law, bulldozed through last June.
That same day, the feds announced approval of the truly horrific plan to dredge Burrard Inlet in Vancouver Harbour to give oil tankers up to 16 metres of draft, to load more dilbit from the TMX pipeline. Fully supported by the BC government, the decision is likely to destroy the massive work undertaken by Tsleil-Waututh Nation-TWN’s Treaty, Lands and Resources (TLR) department in conjunction with marine conservation groups like SeaChange. Collectively, 22 marine conservation groups and the TWN have completed over four years’ worth of marine restoration projects in Burrard Inlet. These projects included marine debris removal, eelgrass planting and restoration of native plants along coastlines, to restore the health of Burrard Inlet, providing habitat for fish and shellfish to allow the TWN to harvest traditional foods. It succeeded in shellfish harvesting being restored to Indigenous rights holders. Dredging will release to the environment a century’s worth of heavy metals and industrial contaminants, deep in the sediment.
Vancouver port receives permission to dredge Burrard Inlet, allow big oil tankers to increase load
Another First Nation has stepped up to ensure full engagement before deep geological burial of high-level nuclear waste can take place on their territory.
Ontario First Nation says nuclear waste project must meet its criteria even if fast-tracked
A Northwestern Ontario First Nation says it will determine whether a proposed nuclear waste deposit site on its territory can proceed, even though the project was just added to the federal government’s list of projects it intends to fast-track.
The first three projects that could be declared of national interest and fast-tracked for approval in the fall, as part of an infrastructure push that is key to the Carney government’s agenda, were announced by the government on Wednesday.
All three are in northern regions of the country. And the Nuclear Waste Management Organization’s Deep Geological Repository project is near Ignace and Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation. Chief Clayton Wetelainen of Wabigoon Lake told The Globe and Mail Thursday that although he supports the move to speed the project’s development, he stands by the nation’s host agreement with the NWMO, which says his nation has its own regulatory approval process based on cultural values related to land.
In all of this, what I find astonishing is that the Carney administration is picking and choosing major projects that are invariably going to be over budget and delayed while it simultaneously ignores or cancels projects with the best track record for climate benefit and economic performance. The new “Liberal” decision-makers have made the typical error of project managers of thinking the way to deliver projects on time is to eliminate regulations and cancel advance study, seeing such prudence as so much “red tape.” In this, they are the ultimate neoliberals.
I hear credible rumours that the Canada Impact Agency, what pre-Harper was the “Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency”, has had its entire support group for project panel reviews dismantled. The government has apparently concluded it will never again need to know how to organize a panel review, because there will not be any. Those of us who practiced environmental law, and experts like Stephen Hazell whose book on Environmental Assessment law in Canada is a practitioner’s bible on the subject, have long maintained that advance assessments should be seen as a key ingredient in the planning process.
Why do I find Carney’s “Build Canada Strong and Fast” approach astonishing? It goes back to a conversation I had with Mark Carney last year. Other than the occasional and random corridor conversation (and only 2 or 3 of those), I have only had two meetings with the Prime Minister. For the first, in October 2025, I thought I should make sure he knew about an astonishing book my husband, John Kidder, the voracious reader, had brought to my attention. How Big Things get Done, the Surprising Factors that Determine the Fate of Every Project.
The authors, Canadian journalist Dan Gardner and Norwegian economic geographer, Bent Flyvbjerg, known as the “world’s leading mega-project expert,” combined forces to produce an eminently readable digest of thousands of examples of projects–big and small. In fact, Flyvbjerg’s data base includes over 16,000 projects broken down into 25 project types.
His conclusions are clear. The key to a successful project is “think slow, act fast.” or as my carpenter friends always say, measure twice, cut once.
What Flyvbjerg proved, and redundantly so, is that taking time with planning avoids costly errors. The psychology of politicians with a drive to announce big things, large numbers to deadlines almost invariably leads to error. And even more amazing, the conclusion of the worst possible kinds of projects are the very ones the Carney administration is now committing to. In How Big Things Get Done, Flyvbjerg and Gardner developed a metrics-based analysis drawn from the over 16K projects studied. They boil it down for project managers to “cost risk.” And conclude (at p. 173) “At one extreme—the terrifying place where no one wants to be—we find storage of nuclear waste, hosting the Olympic Games, construction of nuclear power plants, building information technology systems and constructing hydroelectric dams. They are all classic ‘one huge thing’ projects. At the other extreme, we find five blessed types that are not subject to fattailed risks. They’re all modular…and look at solar and wind power. They’re way out there, sitting pretty.”
When I asked Mark Carney if he had heard of the book, I was amazed when he said that, not only had he heard of the book, he was so impressed with Bent Flyvbjerg that he invited him to meet with the Cabinet!
And yet, Carney and company have drawn their preferred projects—other than hosting Olympic games!—from the list of terrifying places no one wants to be.
I left the meeting obtaining one other commitment from the PM, that before public money was ever put into another mega-project like TMX, there would at least be a public and transparent cost-benefit analysis. Yet here we are—pipelines announced, hundreds of millions of dollars to “give” First Nations an equity stake in the ghastly project and billions already to the small modular reactor project in Ontario. Another one of Flyvbjerg’s warning’s is “do not be the ‘first!’” Of course, since there are no SMRs in operation anywhere in any democracy, and only two without shareable data in China and Russia. Wow! And Hodgson boasted this week, Canada will be the first.
And so it goes, the baffling mystery of the Prime Minister who reads and writes books and forgets what is in them!
And with that I leave you to enjoy your Sunday. I do want to remind you, if you are a Green Party member, to register for the upcoming special general meeting, July 4. (details in the second P.S.) The first P.S. is an email I received from Sierra Club of Canada. I was so informative, I just cut and pasted it here!
Love and thanks!
Elizabeth
P.S. #1
from Sierra Club- Connor Curtis
The Tyee just published a three-part exposé on the influence of the pro-oil & gas & big tech group Build Canada and it could not be more timely. The Federal Government seems to have unlimited resources when it comes to backing oil and gas projects, but when it comes to supporting electrification and renewables that backing ends up being hollow or a means to funnel money to oil and gas, AI, and nuclear with ties to U.S. interests. The latest example of this is the announcement of electric interties – just ahead of a pipeline proposal – which seems like a positive announcement until one realizes two things:
- Firstly, as CBC notes: “no new dollar figure will be attached to the [electric interties] announcement… Policy experts have called for building interties across the nation capable of transmitting more than 2,000 megawatts of power…. None of the projects announced on Friday approaches that scale [and, on a more personal note, Newfoundland and Labrador is once again absent according to CBC].
- As John Woodside points out on Bluesky: “Nothing against power grid interties, in fact they’re needed, but with the Alberta west coast pipeline deal coming soon it’s fair to say we’re seeing a pattern of the Carney gov timing electricity updates with pipeline updates – presumably flooding the zone to mitigate blow back.” (The PM has directly referenced the value of flooding the zone as Ecojustice notes).
Again, according to polling Canadians – including Albertans – are against public financing for a new oil pipeline. One thing is very important to note here: This pattern is NOT just the Federal Government letting the market address climate change – as lazy a strategy as that would be. This trend is also seeing the Federal Government interfering in the market: not to speed up the adoption of renewables (as would be a good public investment), but to try to manufacture demand for – and support via taxpayer dollars – oil and gas projects against renewable options.
If you’re wondering why this is happening, then I do really recommend reading that three-part series in the Tyee on the billionaire-backed plans of ‘Build Canada’ – which range from privatizing airports, to climate policy erosion, to Canadian digital passports integrated with U.S. tech giants.
P.S. # 2
The Green Party of Canada is holding a Special General Meeting (SGM) on Saturday, July 4th at 1:00 PM ET.
Members are strongly encouraged to attend. If you have already registered, thank you! If you have not, please register now. Please note that full interpretation will be available.
The purpose of this online meeting is to address three motions which were tabled at the November 2025 SGM. These motions will eliminate existing barriers to holding productive general meetings.
We must have at least 200 members in attendance on July 4th to achieve quorum. This is why we are asking GPC members to make a commitment to attend the meeting and finish this work.
The starting time for the meeting is:
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- 10:00 AM Pacific Time
- 1:00 PM Eastern Time
- 2:30 PM Newfoundland Time