Carney Unveils Major Projects for Canada to Offset Damage of Trump’s Tariffs

Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada on Thursday announced a series of major projects meant to lessen Canada’s reliance on exports to sustain its economy, part of a strategy to deal with the economic disruptions caused by President Trump’s tariffs.

Several of the first batch of projects focused on increasing fossil fuel production and mining, however, which is likely to anger environmentalists and put the government in conflict with Indigenous people who have land and hunting rights over territory that would be used for some of the infrastructure plans.

The initial list includes doubling the capacity of a liquefied natural gas plant and developing two copper mines, a nuclear reactor and a container port.

“We will create economic opportunities that help Canadians not just manage through this crisis — we will manage through the crisis,” Mr. Carney told reporters in Edmonton, Alberta, referring to the fallout from Mr. Trump’s tariffs. “Our goal is to prosper from it.”

But he cautioned that adjusting to the tariffs still posed significant challenges for Canada, the United States’ largest trading partner.

“What’s happening now in the global economy is not a transition; it is a rupture,” Mr. Carney said. “The United States is fundamentally and rapidly transforming all of its trading relationships. And the effects are both immediate and profound.”

In leading the Liberal Party to a stunning electoral victory in the spring, Mr. Carney repeatedly promised to reduce Canada’s dependence on the United States.

During his first month in office, Mr. Carney pushed through legislation that allows government to provide swift regulatory approval of major infrastructure projects it deems to be in the national interest. He is also trying to work with provinces to eliminate barriers to domestic trade.

Since his election, environmentalists have also criticized Mr. Carney’s focus on tapping into Canada’s vast resources, saying that approach would undermine environmental laws and undercut the country’s commitments to taking on climate change.

Indigenous groups have also raised alarms. National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak of the Assembly of First Nations said last week that many Indigenous leaders worried that the relationship between the federal government and Indigenous groups was “moving backward in this new age of U.S. colonialism.”

Indigenous groups have mounted legal challenges to the country’s expedited approval process for major infrastructure.

Mr. Carney has repeatedly said that the pursuit of major infrastructure projects will respect the land rights of Indigenous communities and keep Canada on course to address climate change.

On Wednesday, the prime minister announced a council of Indigenous people that will advise a new office he created to act as a clearinghouse for approving and financing major infrastructure.

The new office will be based in Calgary, Alberta, the center of Canada’s oil and gas industry. Dawn Farrell, the head of the new office, is a former chief executive of an oil pipeline company owned by the federal government.

All the projects announced on Thursday are already underway. But Mr. Carney said some were still in the final stages of approval or had outstanding financing issues.

Mr. Carney on Thursday emphasized what he described as the environmental gains of many of the first five projects. The expanded natural liquefied gas plant in British Columbia, he said, will emit 60 percent less carbon than similar plants produce globally on average. But because methane, the chief component of natural gas, is a particularly potent greenhouse gas, many environmental groups are opposed to any increase in its production.

The expansion also drew immediate criticism from a major Indigenous group. “Rather than being met with partnership, we are given an ultimatum: Accept fossil fuel expansion or be pushed aside,” Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, the president of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs, said in a statement. “We reject any process that tramples our inherent and constitutionally protected title and rights, ignores free, prior and informed consent.”

The amount of money the federal government will need to provide for each project, Mr. Carney said, will depend in most cases on how much private investors are willing to contribute.

Mr. Carney also announced five projects that are likely to become part of the program in the fall. The list included a high-speed passenger railway network in Ontario and Quebec, and a major wind turbine installation in Nova Scotia that environmental groups will probably support.

But also on the list is a multibillion plan to gather carbon emissions from Alberta’s oil sands and carry them through a new pipeline network for underground burial. Environmentalists have questioned the technology and view it as a way to further expand oil production.