Construction on the Mackenzie Valley Highway will begin this summer, Prime Minister Mark Carney said in Yellowknife Thursday.

The highway is now one of three major projects in the Northwest Territories officially referred to Ottawa’s Major Projects Office, along with a redefined Arctic economic and security corridor and the Taltson Hydro expansion, Carney said.

Carney recalled hearing about the highway project back when he lived in Fort Smith as a child, he told reporters.

“For decades, there have been a series of false starts and endless assessments,” he said. “That record ends today.”

Carney was in the Northwest Territories to announce $35 billion in investment  into northern defence and infrastructure.

He did not make any specific funding commitments for the three major projects or clarify how their costs will be shared.

Premier R.J. Simpson said, “The announcements today are truly nation-building, and they honour the efforts of northerners for decades now.”

The territorial government has previously said the projects depend on Ottawa’s financial backing, at least in part because the territory has a small taxpayer base, and project price tags are in the billions of dollars.

Mackenzie Valley Highway project

Carney said the first phase of construction will involve building an all-season highway from Wrigley to Norman Wells, while the second phase will eventually extend the road all the way to Inuvik.

He said construction this summer will start with the Oscar Creek Bridge relocation, the Christina Creek realignment and Highway 1 targeted resurfacing. 

The full highway’s length is now estimated at 800 kilometres.

At recent meetings between communities and the territorial government, an extension to Inuvik was still characterized as a potential and increasingly necessary component of the project to secure federal funding. It was said at the time that it would add an additional $2 billion to the estimated $1.65-billion cost. 

During Thursday’s announcement, Carney spoke of the second phase of the project as a definite component, saying the highway would reduce the time needed to drive between Yellowknife and Inuvik by nearly in half.

The project is still undergoing environmental assessment.

Carney said some components of the first phase are further along than others. 

“So we can move forward on those as we’re finalizing environmental assessments and others for the other components,” he said. 

Arctic economic and security corridor

The Arctic economic and security corridor was the only project in the N.W.T. that had previously been referred to the federal Major Projects Office (MPO) for further review. 

However, the N.W.T. government had been pushing the Mackenzie Valley Highway project and the Taltson Hydro expansion as other projects it wanted to see as eligible for consideration as “nation-building” projects.

The Arctic economic and security corridor would link the N.W.T.’s highway system by road to a new port at Grays Bay, Nunavut.

It previously was a catch-all name for both the Grays Bay road and port as well as the road that would connect them to the N.W.T’s highways. Thursday’s announcement splits them into separate projects meeting at the Nunavut border. 

On the Northwest Territories side, the Tłı̨chǫ government and the Yellowknives Dene First Nation have signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly take the lead on the corridor project, collaborating with the federal and territorial governments.

The corridor is now a planned all-season road through the Slave Geological Province, a mineral-rich area, that would span approximately 400 kilometres.

The corridor has been cited as a potential “nation-building project” since the first slate of projects for the Major Projects Office was announced in September. 

Taltson Hydro expansion

The Taltson Hydro expansion is the third N.W.T. project now referred to the Major Projects Office. The federal government had committed $25 million for the expansion in 2024. However, revised estimates last June put the projected cost at more than $2 billion. 

The expansion is expected to double the N.W.T.’s hydro capacity by building a new 60-megawatt hydro facility that would connect the two power grids north and south of Great Slave Lake through a 320-kilometre transmission line. 

It’s not yet clear what the proposed timelines for the projects will be.

Carney said that together, the projects referred to the Major Projects Office Thursday represent around $10 billion in investment and will create over 10,000 jobs during their construction.

“Their construction will unleash new career opportunities, higher paychecks, faster trips, stronger communities, and they will make large investments possible by connecting the Canadian North and Arctic,” he said.