Yesterday was the day that Mark Carney announced the second tranche of PONIs to be referred to the Major Projects Office, which consisted of six existing projects and one “concept,” which I’m pretty unsure how it was supposed to work. Three of those projects are mines—Sisson Mine for tungsten in New Brunswick, Crawford Nickel project in Ontario, and the Nouveau Monde Graphite phase 2 project in Quebec. Those very much align with the desire to make Canada a more trustworthy supplier of critical minerals than China (though pat of the problem is that they have a near-monopoly on refining and processing). A hydro project for Iqaluit was on the list, as was a transmission line between northwestern BC and the Yukon, and an LNG Project on the BC coast that has some Indigenous partnerships (but  not every First Nation in the area is in favour, and there are concerns about its ownership structure). As for that “concept,” it is referred to as the Northwest Critical Conservation Corridor, also between northwest B.C. and Yukon., and it could include critical minerals and clean power transmission developments in the area. Again, I’m not sure how that works with no actual project or proponent.

In some of these cases, as in the first tranche of projects, some of them are fairly well developed and along the process, while in others, they’ve been discussed forever and have some Indigenous buy-in, but shovels have never been in the ground (like the Sisson Mine). It again raises questions about what the MPO is supposed to do here, but its head, Dawn Farrell, was talking about ensuring that these processes happen in parallel and not sequentially, and would also do things like security financing, guaranteeing pricing, and ensuring a supply of skilled labour, which seems like an awful lot of things for them to try and control for.

And then there’s Alberta and its imaginary pipeline, which Danielle Smith insists she’s still working on, so she’s supportive of these projects, because she is still “negotiating” for that pipeline to the northwest BC coast that neither the province nor the affected First Nations want, while there is a growing supply glut in the market. I’m pretty sure another pipeline won’t save her province’s finances, but she’s going to keep trying.

Ukraine Dispatch

Kyiv was under another “massive” attack early this morning, and at least eleven people have been wounded. President Zelenskyy visited troops near the front lines in Zaporizhzhia.

Good reads:

• Anita Anand’s trip to Greenland to open a new consulate has been postponed by bad weather in the region.
• The Public Accounts show the government increased spending on consultants to $19 billion last year, which they claim were for things like shipbuilding.
• The Immigration department says that one member of Irish trio Kneecap has been barred from Canada, but the other two are “under review.”
• In his annual report, the director of CSIS warned that Russia and China are active in Canada, while there are worrying signs of teenagers being radicalised to terrorism.
• Palestinians in Canada trying to bring family members over have failed an attempt to sue the government to speed processing, as the delays are outside their control.
• SAAB says that 10,000 manufacturing and research jobs could land in Canada if we decide to choose to acquire the Gripen fighter jets.
• Conservatives on the health committee want an investigation into freezer malfunctions that destroyed $20 million in drugs from the emergency stockpile.
• The Supreme Court of Canada heard the challenge of the former lieutenant governor of New Brunswick because she was unilingual in a bilingual province.
• Jonathan Wilkinson says that he’s not unhappy in the Liberal ranks, in spite of Poilievre raising his name as a disgruntled MP.
• Former MP Soraya Martinez Ferrada was sworn in as mayor of Montreal.
• Colby Cosh snickers at all of the Alberta UCP MLAs who are suddenly concerned that recall petitions have been started for their seats, despite being warned.
• Supriya Dwivedi warns not to put too much stock in the rumours that Poilievre’s leadership is in trouble.
• My Xtra column goes through provinces’ cavalier use of the Notwithstanding Clause, because they are taking the lesson that there’s no political cost to doing so.

Odds and ends:

Called it. Poilievre going to bat for the interim PBO after he disqualified himself. And he's not a "budget watchdog." He's not a watchdog of any kind.Also, that's not how inflation works. FFS

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-11-14T02:13:20.867Z

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