MBP Intelligence endeavours to cover national politics, which means not just federal politics but also politics and policy developments at the provincial level. This week, MBP Intelligence turns its attention to Atlantic Canada, where a series of major energy developments are quietly reshaping the region’s economic and political trajectory, and testing the federal government’s appetite for big bets on energy infrastructure.
The Atlantic provinces have long occupied a particular place in the national imagination; economically dependent, politically marginal, perpetually waiting for a break. That narrative has never been entirely fair, but it has been durable. What is happening right now in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador, however, has the potential to upend it. Two energy projects of genuinely national scale are advancing in the region, and both carry implications that extend well beyond provincial borders. These projects are discussed below.
The common thread across both provinces is the scale of the federal ask from the provinces. Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador are not requesting modest subsidies or regional development grants. They are asking Ottawa to be a partner – financially, regulatorily, and strategically in projects that would rank among the largest energy investments in Canadian history. The Carney government, which has positioned itself as more ambitious than its predecessor on energy infrastructure, will eventually have to decide whether its rhetoric matches its willingness to deploy capital. The decisions Ottawa makes on Wind West and Bay du Nord will say a great deal about whether “national interest” is a designation that applies equally across regions, or whether it remains something that flows more naturally westward.
