The Green Party of Canada is calling on the federal government to halt plans to begin construction on the Mackenzie Valley Highway this summer, warning that the project is a multi-billion-dollar giveaway to the mining and fossil fuel industries that would bulldoze ahead before an environmental review already underway is complete.

“The Prime Minister flew to Yellowknife to announce he’s building an 800-kilometre highway this summer. In doing so, he’s trying to push through a major project before the environmental review is complete, sidestepping a process created to protect the land, uphold Indigenous rights, and safeguard the people who live there,” said Green Party Leader Elizabeth May.


The Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board is only partway through its assessment of the first 281-kilometre section of the highway, between Wrigley and Norman Wells. For the remaining 520 kilometres from Norman Wells to Inuvik, the review process has not yet begun.

Prime Minister Carney dismissed decades of planning and review as ‘a series of false starts and endless assessments.’ But this review board exists because Indigenous peoples in the Mackenzie Valley negotiated for it as part of their land claims, and it is protected by federal law. Overriding it in the name of nation-building would be a clear betrayal of commitments made to Indigenous peoples.

“You can’t just skip the process because you’ve decided it’s taking too long,” said May. “This review board wasn’t created to be an obstacle. It was created because Indigenous peoples have a right to a say over what happens on their land. If the Prime Minister respects those rights, he should let the process finish.”

May also pointed out that Canada already has a road to the western Arctic. The Dempster Highway connects Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk to southern Canada, but it is deteriorating rapidly. Permafrost thaw driven by climate change is causing sections of the road to sink and crack, while repairs require massive quantities of gravel to be hauled hundreds of kilometres along the same fragile route.

“If this is really about Arctic defence, surely the badly degraded Dempster Highway should be repaired first,” said May. “Building an entirely new 800-kilometre highway through thawing permafrost while letting the existing Arctic road crumble makes no strategic sense.”

The government’s initial cost estimate of $1.65 billion is almost certain to rise dramatically, especially if it includes a possible $2-billion extension to Inuvik. ExxonMobil, Imperial Oil, and Shell abandoned the Mackenzie Gas Project nearly a decade ago because the cost of building a pipeline through permafrost terrain was too high and cheap fracked gas made the project uneconomic. Imperial Oil announced in January that it will shut down its Norman Wells operations this summer due to declining output, eliminating one of the few remaining economic justifications for the road.

“The one major employer at the end of this road is packing up and leaving,” said May. “Canadians have a right to know– whose interests are being served by our PM? Taxpayers will be on the hook for a final price tag that could be two or three times higher than what the government is promising, for a road through some of the most challenging terrain on the planet, to a town that is losing its economic anchor.”

The Green Party is calling on the federal government to allow the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board to complete its work, to make repair of the Dempster Highway the immediate Arctic infrastructure priority, and to provide Canadians with an honest accounting of what this project will actually cost.

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