Earlier this week, Carney’s Liberal government introduced Bill C-39, the so-called Building Canada Strong Act. All the legislation these days, by both federal and provincial governments, have cutesy titles like this. Back in the day, legislation tended to have boring titles such as Changes to Labour Legislation Act or Budget 1995 Bill. Once a focus on public relations took over from actually delivering clarity and substance in government, we got the cute titles that are now everywhere. Despite the fancy titles, few of these legislative initiatives live up to their billing. If they did, Canada wouldn’t be in the trouble we find ourselves in today.
Bill C-39 contains a number of elements which are intended to speed up the pace of approvals for major projects. It is interesting that this is being introduced a year-and-a-half into Carney’s tenure. If he had been serious about moving “at speeds not seen in generations” as he claimed when first elected, this type of bill should have been introduced immediately. One can only presume that Carney’s first stabs at trying to get past Canada’s stupefying bureaucratic morass by introducing a bunch of new agencies that were layered on top of the existing bloated bureaucracy failed miserably, so he’s looking at a new tack. This legislation actually holds some hopeful signs.
The Bill lays out some new terms for project approvals. A one-year period is set as a decision timeline for major project reviews and streamlines the process for approvals, laying out a “one project, one review, one year” model so that projects do not have to be approved by more than one level of government. It also states that consultations with First Nations, environmental groups and others that typically are consulted on projects will be done concurrently to speed up the process. Reviews that were previously done by the Impact Assessment Agency (IAA) personnel will now be tasked to the relevant line departments such as the Environment Department, Energy or the Nuclear Safety Commission. The Bill also confirms that the Canadian Energy Regulator will be the only assessor for interprovincial projects such as pipelines, power lines and offshore energy projects.
As the IAA was widely viewed as one of the most significant impediments to a more effective approval process, these changes should help speed things up. The IAA was introduced by the Trudeau government in 2019 and replaced the Environmental Assessment Agency (EAA). While the EAA evaluated projects on scientific criteria such as their actual environmental impact, the IAA famously broadened the criteria for approval to very subjective considerations such as social and gender impacts. These were ridiculous additions that slowed things down considerably to the point that very few projects were approved at all.
Another contentious part of C-39 concerns labour relations and changes to the Canada Labour Code. The changes formalize the rules around government actions in labour disputes – such as the imposition of back-to-work legislation – and shorten the timelines for collective bargaining activities. The changes clarify and shorten the time after a strike begins when the labour minister can order binding arbitration, with the goal of reducing the threats to critical supply chains. As Canada experiences an inordinately high number of days lost to strikes which damage our economy and discourage foreign investment, any improvement to this situation is welcome.
Naturally the unions are up in arms about these changes. Under the Trudeau government, unions won an immense victory as the use of replacement workers in federal industries was banned. This was a foolish change that made the labour playing field even more unbalanced in favour of unions. This ban on replacement workers remains unchanged in Bill C-39. Unions have a very favourable legislative environment in Canada as compared to other developed countries, and the changes proposed in C-39 are not that significant. The labour movement has tended to vote Liberal in recent elections. These proposed changes may give a boost to the NDP in a future election.
Taken together, the changes in C-39 should go some way toward speeding up Canada’s turgid project approval process. Maybe Carney is finally figuring out that the reversal of many Trudeau legislative initiatives is necessary to get Canada moving again. Many detrimental pieces of bad Trudeau-era law remain in place though, such as the industrial carbon tax, methane regulations, the clean fuel standard and the requirement for very expensive carbon capture, utilization and storage programs. Before Canada can really realize our economic potential, all of these bad laws should be eliminated.
Another very important issue that remains is whether the Carney government will be courageous enough to actually implement the provisions in C-39. There are all kinds of laws in Canada that are on the books but are effectively useless because they are not enforced. Given our past experience, it’s easy to see an intransigent First Nations’ protest or environmentalists blocking major highways or railways, believing that they still were not sufficiently consulted under the new reduced timelines. We should never have kowtowed to these groups as much as we did in the past, as they now expect to often have an effective veto over projects that are good for Canada. So the real question is, despite some promising elements in C-39, will the Carney Liberals have the guts to actually make them stick?
Catherine Swift was President of the Coalition of Concerned Manufacturers & Businesses Canada from 2022 to 2026. She was previously President of Working Canadians from 2015-2021 & President & CEO of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) from 1995-2014. She was Chief Economist of the CFIB from 1987-1995, Senior Economist with TD Bank from 1983-1987 & held several positions with the federal government from 1976-1983.
She has published numerous articles in journals, magazines & other media on issues such as free trade, finance, entrepreneurship & women business owners. Ms. Swift is a past President of the Empire Club of Canada, a former Director of the CD Howe Institute, the Canadian Youth Business Foundation, SOS Children’s Villages, past President of the International Small Business Congress and current Director of the Fraser Institute. She was cited in 2003 & 2012 as one of the most powerful women in Canada by the Women’s Executive Network & is a recipient of the Queen’s Silver & Gold Jubilee medals.
