Make Canada Build Again? Canadian politicians are suddenly in a rush to get shovels in the ground

Once upon a time, Canada built itself into a great nation.From the highways carved through B.C.’s mountains to the locks of the St. Lawrence Seaway, building awe-inspiring infrastructure used to be part of the fabric of Canadian life. And it could be again, provided governments can cut the “red tape” designed to protect ecosystems, communities and Indigenous Rights. At least, that’s the story some Canadian leaders are spinning to help justify new laws aimed at making it quicker and simpler for major projects — from mines and pipelines to hospitals and housing — to get built. These days, the process of building big things in Canada “has become too arduous, has taken too long and has been holding us back,” according to Prime Minister Mark Carney. “With every year that a proposal to build a port or wind energy farm or a highway sat on an official’s desk, we were leaving investment, prosperity and jobs, people’s careers on the table,” he told reporters in Ottawa last week. “We’ve been keeping ourselves dependent on foreign powers.” To change that, Carney’s government introduced Bill C-5 on June 6. Among other things, the bill would grant the federal government the power to decide when projects are matters of national interest and grant them conditional approval.  Once selected, these projects would undergo expedited review processes with an eye to determining how to build them — rather than whether they should be built at all. “We can build big, build bold, build now,” Carney said of the legislation, which passed the House of Commons on June 20 with support from the Liberal and Conservative caucuses. It still requires approval by the Senate before becoming law. The St. Lawrence Seaway is a prime example of how Canada used to be able to build big projects quickly, according to Prime Minister Mark Carney. Photo: Ian Willms / The Narwhal Carney recalled the five years it took to build the St. Lawrence Seaway, a system of locks, canals and channels that allows ships to travel from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, as an example of Canada’s former ability to build big things quickly.  He’s not the only Canadian political leader to wax nostalgic for historic building booms lately. In May, B.C. Premier David Eby also harkened back to bygone decades while defending Bill 15, the Infrastructure Projects Act, which grants the province broad powers to fast-track projects deemed to be “provincially significant.”But musings about building big things quickly in decades past omit the darker side of development in Canada and the landscapes damaged along the way, said Deborah Curran, executive director of the Environmental Law Centre at the University of Victoria. “This vision of nostalgia is a very, very colonial vision that does not represent the Canada that we’ve agreed to be together,” Curran said in an interview. “I wonder, where’s the nostalgia for intact ecosystems and healthy watersheds and corridors where the caribou can move freely and thrive?” While glossing over the problematic aspects of B.C.’s former building booms, Eby also claimed Bill 15 will help the province become “the economic engine of the new Canada that we all know we need” — picking up on a line another premier has used to justify similar legislation. Making changes in order to seize a bright, shiny economic opportunity has been part of Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s narrative about the need for Bill 5, the Protect Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act. It gives cabinet the authority to create special economic zones where provincial regulations and municipal bylaws can be circumvented to facilitate development. As the “protect” in its name suggests, Bill 5 is also meant to help offset the impact of U.S. tariffs on Ontario’s economy, by spurring investment in projects the province could push through with minimal regulatory oversight. The Canadian and B.C. governments have also invoked U.S. tariffs as justification for their own fast-tracking bills. It’s rare to see much unity across Canada’s political spectrum, but Carney, Eby and Ford have taken startlingly similar stances on the need to streamline project approvals and get shovels in the ground. Their proposals have sparked criticism about concentrating power, disregarding environmental protections and — particularly in the case of the provincial laws — damaging relationships with First Nations. New laws create special zones, permitting priority for chosen projects While there are striking similarities between the three bills, there are also significant differences in how each government is proposing to speed up project approvals. Ontario’s Bill 5 aims to accelerate energy, infrastructure and mining approvals by creating “a new ‘one project, one process’ model to cut government review timelines by 50 per cent and establish special economic zones, while protecting our environment,” according to Energy and Mines Minister Stephen Lecce. Within special economic zones, local and provincial regulations would not apply to selected projects and their proponents. For example, the creation of a special economic zone could effectively circumvent opposition from some First Nations to the Ford government’s desire to develop the Ring of Fire, an area in northern Ontario rich in sought-after minerals. The power to designate where and how special economic zones would apply will rest with the provincial cabinet. There will be no special economic zones in B.C. as a result of Bill 15 but the legislation does give the provincial cabinet the power to deem almost any type of major project — whether publicly or privately owned — as “provincially significant.”  Such projects would be pushed to the front of the queue for provincial permits and potentially exempt from a fulsome and transparent environmental assessment. The bill also opens the door to whole classes of projects — like, say, critical minerals mines — being designated provincially significant. Eby has promised that his government will not use the legislation to push through pipelines, LNG facilities, supportive housing or overdose prevention sites. But those prohibitions will supposedly be included in forthcoming regulations — meaning a subsequent government could overturn them with the stroke of a pen. In some ways, Bill C-5 could be seen as the most restrained of the fast-tracking bills. Like Bill 5 and Bill 15, it would give the federal cabinet significant leeway to decide a project is in the national interest if it meets certain criteria such as providing “economic or other benefits to Canada” or having “a high likelihood of execution.” But unlike the provincial bills, C-5 does not exempt designated projects from existing regulatory assessments but would see them evaluated with a focus on how to get them built, rather than whether they should be built at all. Like Ontario’s legislation, C-5 will create a one-stop shop for project permits via a new federal office tasked with coordinating the expedited review processes. Why the rush? Like the projects they want to see hurried along, Carney, Eby and Ford expedited the passage of their fast-tracking bills. Bill C-5 passed the House of Commons just two weeks after its introduction and B.C.’s Bill 15 became law in less than a month; both were subject to government motions limiting legislative debate.  Ford’s government made a similar move, limiting debate on Bill 5 with a time allocation motion. While Ontario’s legislative process includes time for public comment after a bill has been tabled in the house — something that does not happen in B.C. — Ford’s government rejected an amendment from Ontario NDP MPP Sol Mamakwa to extend the public hearings by a few days so they could include a hearing in Thunder Bay, closer to many affected First Nations and the Ring of Fire. Why the rush? It regularly takes bills months — sometimes years at the federal level — to become law but, according to the governments backing them, these fast-tracking bills can’t wait. (Even if, in B.C.’s case, it may take months to develop the regulations that will define how the bill functions, meaning Bill 15’s fast-tracking powers may not take full effect until much later this year.) The reasons given for the urgency vary. Fast-tracking projects will help insulate the economy from the effects of U.S. tariffs, politicians say — even though many of the materials needed to build big projects may have to be imported from the U.S. A need to seize the critical minerals moment has been another line of defence, despite the fact that governments have been developing critical minerals strategies for years. B.C., which lagged behind most other provinces and the federal government in putting out its own plan to cash in on critical minerals, released its strategy nearly 18 months ago. It’s not always or only regulatory requirements that hold big projects back. A Narwhal analysis of 10 natural resource and infrastructure proposals — highlighted as high priority by Conservative Party of Canada Leader Pierre Poilievre during the federal election campaign — found many of them were delayed for other reasons. One project, the second phase of LNG Canada’s liquefied natural gas export plant in Kitimat, B.C., is fully permitted but has yet to receive a final investment commitment by the company. A study published in the Royal Society of Canada journal FACETS in December found, of 27 mines granted environmental permits in B.C. since 1995, only three reported being held back by regulatory requirements. “Economic factors like commodity prices were the most common cause of delay,” the study’s authors concluded. The LNG Canada facility in Kitimat, B.C., has just begun producing liquefied natural gas for export to Asia. A second phase of the project has been approved by the federal and provincial governments but the company has yet to confirm an investment decision. Photo: Marty Clemens / The Narwhal Carney has also pulled at the thread of repairing Canada’s national fabric with some good old-fashioned nation-building projects, positioning C-5 as a way to bolster national unity following a particularly polarizing federal election campaign and deepening societal divides on many issues. But ramming through legislation without consultation does little to build unity, Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse argued at a press conference on June 11. “It’s ramming something through when you should be hearing from Canadians, from industry, from First Nations,” she said. “We shouldn’t do that as a country. … We take the summer, take the time to listen to First Nations, take the time to listen to Canadians. And I think that will make us a more united country.” Politicians pledge to protect Indigenous Rights while picking up the pace on project permits All three governments keen to fast-track major projects claim they will continue to fulfill their obligations to First Nations. “Projects will only be designated following full consultation with affected Indigenous Peoples,” declared C-5’s press release. But consultation isn’t the standard of free, prior and informed consent laid out in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, something Ottawa once aspired to achieve, Curran points out. “The [federal government has] jumped back from aligning federal law with the UN Declaration to a Section 35 consultation and accommodation framework,” she said. “So they’ve definitely taken a step back from recognizing Indigenous nations as having inherent authority in Canada and a meaningful role in and what happens across our landscape.” Teegee, who also chairs the Chiefs Committee on the United Nations Declaration Act, said an initial legal review of C-5 conducted by the assembly concluded the legislation is out of step with federal law. “It isn’t compliant with the context of the United Nations Declaration Act,” he said. “There’s no ability to make a decision on projects — especially if they’re fast-tracked — in terms of free, prior and informed consent. That is in direct contradiction of the declaration.” Like Prime Minister Mark Carney, B.C. Premier David Eby has pledged to consult First Nations while developing the regulations that will put meat on the bones of Bill 15. Photo: Province of B.C. / Flickr The B.C. bill also commits to fulfilling consultation obligations with First Nations as required under the province’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, which commits to aligning provincial laws with the United Nations Declaration. Despite admitting that his government failed to consult with First Nations while developing the legislation, Eby refused to retract the bill until that consultation could be completed — something many First Nations leaders demanded. The premier’s promise to adequately consult with them on the regulations that will put meat on the bones of Bill 15 is too little too late, those leaders have said. Facing its own backlash from First Nations, the Ontario government amended Bill 5 to explicitly recognize the duty to consult. The bill does not clarify how First Nations will be able to participate in these decisions. New laws could face legal challenges With many of the criteria for eligible projects yet to be determined, it’s tough to know precisely how these new laws will work once their powers are unleashed.  First Nations have vowed to challenge the laws in court, potentially putting approvals on hold for years — actions that could nullify the speedy permitting governments are chasing.  “British Columbia, Ontario [and] Canada, in their haste to develop fast-tracking legislation, they are fast-tracking the legislation process,” Teegee said. “It’s probably going to take a lot longer to get approval for some of these projects, because we’re going to end up in court.” Avoiding those lawsuits requires governments give First Nations a seat at the table, Woodhouse said. “Isn’t it better to talk through things rather than always being in litigation?” she asked at Wednesday’s press conference. “It seems like First Nations always need to litigate, and then we get processes and results later. 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