A high-profile industrial energy project proposing to connect Western Canada's natural gas fields to the Port of Baie-Comeau, Quebec, has been showcased to foreign financial supporters at the first Canadian Investment Summit in Toronto. Marinvest Energy, recently renamed Kino Aski, is seeking international investment for the $30-billion industrial complex, a project described as a Canada-scale liquefied natural gas export initiative.
The existence of the initiative was originally revealed by Le Devoir reporting in July 2025. Despite being presented in a prospectus prepared for participants at the investment summit, the project has yet to be publicly unveiled in detail by its proponents and has not been formally submitted for an environmental assessment.
The summit comes as the federal government under Prime Minister Mark Carney implements regulatory overhauls aimed at accelerating development and strengthening the investment climate. New regulations published in the Canada Gazette remove certain interprovincial and international pipelines, transmission lines, and offshore renewable energy projects from the review scope of the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC). Under the updated framework, oversight for these projects is transferred solely to the Canada Energy Regulator (CER), which still conducts its own impact assessments reviewing environmental and other effects on factors such as air, water, soil, climate change, wildlife, and species at risk.
While the fossil fuel industry has shown strong support for streamlining the review process to a single regulator, environmental advocates have raised significant concerns. Critics are denouncing what they term a lack of transparency regarding the behind-the-scenes push for foreign capital.
Alice-Anne Simard, executive director of Nature Québec, voiced strong criticism over the duality between official statements and actions at the summit. Simard stated that while the Quebec and Canadian governments keep repeating that there is no Marinvest project on the table, Ottawa and the proponent are already looking for foreign investors, leaving the people of Quebec deliberately kept in the dark while the project moves forward.
In response to inquiries regarding whether showcasing Kino Aski is premature given that its environmental risks remain unknown and provincial approval is not guaranteed, a spokesperson for Invest in Canada clarified the scope of the summit. The spokesperson stated that projects presented as part of the Canadian Investment Summit Prospectus span various stages of development, from the conceptual phase to the implementation-ready phase. Furthermore, presenting a project to investors and any subsequent discussions in no way prejudges the outcome of environmental assessments, regulatory processes, or any other required approvals.
Project proponents have indicated an intent to follow all applicable regulatory processes, including those mandated by the Canada Energy Regulator and the Quebec Bureau of Public Hearings on the Environment (BAPE), as the initiative navigates its path forward.
