Iqaluit hydroelectric proposal warrants ‘major project’ status

Who cares whether building a hydroelectricity generator in Iqaluit is truly a nation-building project?

It’s a project whose time has come. And since Prime Minister Mark Carney is eager to “turbocharge” the Canadian economy by fast-tracking approval for infrastructure projects, Iqaluit and Nunavut might as well get in line for whatever support comes with that.

Last week, Heather Shilton, the executive director of Nunavut Nukkiksautiit Corp., said in a speech that building a hydro plant in Iqaluit would help make it a “modern Arctic capital.”

Her company is behind the plan to build a dam along the Kuugaluk River, about 60 kilometres northeast of Iqaluit, and a generator that would produce enough electricity to replace Iqaluit’s diesel-burning electricity generator.

Earlier this week, both the Globe and Mail and CBC — citing unnamed sources — reported Carney was set to include the Iqaluit hydro project on a list of at least six so-called “nation-building” projects he was to announce Thursday.

(The reliance of some national media on unnamed sources has been the topic of a previous editorial. It’s one of the things that, unfortunately, fuels the public’s distrust in media.)

Carney has been pushing nation-building projects since he became prime minister in the spring. It’s partly his Liberal government’s response to the economic uncertainty created by some of the trade policies of U.S. President Donald Trump.

The thinking is that fast-tracking projects that will strengthen Canada’s economy in the future will help offset any downturn caused by Trump’s protectionist tariffs.

In some cases, what Carney’s Liberals refer to as “major projects” will get federal government funding to help get them done. In other cases, the government’s role will be simply to help them move quickly through regulatory processes by streamlining environmental assessments and other red tape that typically slows progress.

Plans for an Iqaluit hydro project, however, have long called for direct federal government funding to build it. Ottawa has already kicked in $26 million for studies. Hopefully, that’s a signal it’s willing to chip in on construction.

It’s not known how much the Iqaluit hydro project will cost. Back in 2017, when Qulliq Energy Corp. was considering it, the price tag stood at $500 million — and the cost of everything has only gone up since then.

But the federal government’s definition of what makes something a “nation-building” project has been a little bit loose.

It’s not perfectly clear how a hydro plant that would serve one remote city that’s not connected by a grid to any other community would contribute to the building up of the Canadian economy.

However, Nunavut leaders, including Premier P.J. Akeeagok and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. president Jeremy Tunraluk, have linked the Iqlauit hydro project to Arctic sovereignty and security.

The hydro project is one of four proposals they have promoted as the ones Nunavut can contribute toward Ottawa’s nation-building plan.

For Canada to assert its sovereignty in the Arctic, it needs to have people living in the North. And those people need electricity.

That feels like a bit of a stretch, when the government is aggressively pushing new infrastructure. But there appears to be a low bar for what Ottawa considers “nation-building.”

A strong enough case has been made for the hydro project that it deserves to be on Carney’s major projects list.