Public Comment Period on Intent to Make a Determination
Radio Observatory – 5762 Akins Road

July 16, 2026 — The authorities must decide whether the proposed project is likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects.

To help inform this decision, the authorities are inviting comments from the public on the project and its potential effects on the environment. All comments received will be considered public. For more information, individuals should consult the Privacy Notice on the Registry website.

Written comments must be submitted by August 21, 2026 to:

Philip Blackmore, Project Director
Mailing Address: National Defence Headquarters
101 Colonel By Drive
Ottawa, ON, K1A 0K2
E-mail Address: philip.blackmore@forces.gc.ca

The Proposed Project

The Department of National Defence (DND) is proposing a project. Defence Research and Development Canada intends to install a radio observatory consisting of up to approximately 1,000 antennas, consisting of vertical metal poles of approximately 6 metres in height, spread over an area of up to 60 hectares. The antennas will be connected to a central control shelter by wires. The proposed site will also include security fencing to control access.

The radio observatory will be a receiving station that will be used to assess the direction-of-arrival of radio signals in the high frequency band, from transmit stations at other locations in Canada.

The radio observatory builds on capabilities demonstrated by previous similar large-scale high frequency receive arrays built at the same site, such as the sampled aperture receive array that was active at the site in the 1980s. The radio observatory will be receive-only and will not emit radio signals nor produce any radiofrequency hazards.