Carney prepared to sit over the summer to pass new bill to fast-track major projects
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney said his government will “do everything” to pass its “One Canadian Economy” legislation before the start of the summer break. If it fails, he said MPs might have to sit over the summer to get it adopted.
On Friday, Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc introduced “An Act to enact the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act and the Building Canada Act,” which would remove federal barriers to internal trade and labour mobility and accelerate the approval of “nation-building projects.”
“Today is an important day for Canada, and it’s a day that has literally been decades in the making,” said Carney during an Ottawa press conference alongside ministers LeBlanc, Chrystia Freeland, Tim Hodgson, Rebecca Alty and Rebecca Chartrand.
“We have a tremendous opportunity to build strength at home. This bill helps to unlock that,” he added.
Carney said his intention is to see the bill passed before June 20, when the House of Commons rises and MPs return to their ridings for the summer.
“Yes, it is a top priority for this government, and we will do everything to get it passed before the summer. And if Parliament needs to sit longer, it should sit longer in order to get it passed. That’s what Canadians expect,” he said.
The bill seeks to get projects deemed in the national interest built by focusing on a small number of proposals. Those could mean highways, railways, ports, airports, oil and gas pipelines, critical minerals, mines, nuclear facilities and electricity transmission systems.
Five factors will be taken into account in considering whether a project is in the national interest: its ability to strengthen Canada’s autonomy, resilience and security, provide economic benefits to Canada, advance the interest of Indigenous peoples, contribute to clean growth and “have a high likelihood of successful execution.”
Carney said it has become “too difficult to build in this country” in recent decades, with numerous reviews and assessments and said he wants to change that.
“For too long, when federal agencies have examined a new project, their immediate question has been ‘why?’ With this bill, we will instead ask ourselves ‘how?’”
The government will be putting in place a major projects office, which will coordinate and expedite project reviews including by making sure different departments are rowing in the same direction, especially when the project touches areas of shared jurisdiction. The office will also include an Indigenous Advisory Council with different representatives.
The federal government has promised that the proposed bill to fast-track resource project approvals would follow the constitutional duty to consult First Nations.
On Friday, the Assembly of First Nations reiterated their concern that the rapid pace of these projects poses a “serious threat” to treaty rights .
“The Assembly of First Nations remains deeply concerned about the lack of time and appropriate process to carry out the Crown’s consultation and consent obligations, especially given the potentially massive impact on the rights of First Nations,” the AFN said in a statement.
The government has said the nation-building projects will only be moving forward after consultations with the affected provinces, territories and Indigenous peoples. After a project is approved, the major projects office will put out a set of binding federal conditions for it.
Carney also reiterated his government would not impose a project, such as an oil pipeline, on a province and insisted there needs to be “consensus behind these projects.”
He said he was encouraged to see, from the First Ministers meeting with provincial and territorial premiers on Monday, that many provinces came together in support of major projects that would stretch across provincial boundaries.
The government has committed to cutting the approvals process down to two years from the current five.
Federal officials, speaking on the condition they not be named in a technical briefing on the legislation, said while the bill is “very focused on conditions that will help to streamline things” and help accelerate the process to get to that two-year goal, “the timeline is not legislated.”
The other part of the legislation seeks to remove internal trade and labour mobility barriers in areas of federal jurisdiction. Carney has said that lifting all federal, provincial and territorial barriers over time would add an additional $200 billion to the Canadian economy, which would help offset the impacts of the trade war with the United States.
“This legislation is just taking care of the federal portion, which is a small portion of the barriers,” said a federal official.
The bill would allow a good or service that meets provincial or territorial rules that are comparable to the federal requirements to have met requirements for internal trade. For instance, a washing machine that meets one province’s energy efficiency standards would be deemed to meet comparable federal standards and be sold elsewhere in the country.
“For Canadian businesses, this will make it easier to buy, sell and transport goods and services across the country,” reads a news release about the legislation.
On labour mobility, the bill would eliminate federal barriers by making it easier for workers to get a federal licence by recognizing provincial or territorial work authorizations for the same job. Federal officials gave the example of a land surveyor in Ontario who would want to work on a federal project and would not need additional certifications to do so.
In addition to the legislation, the federal government is planning to remove further federal exceptions in the Canadian Free Trade Agreement by July 1. Since the agreement was signed in 2017, the government has removed nearly 70 per cent of its exceptions.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said while the bill does not go far enough to address barriers to interprovincial trade, his party is open to collaborating with the government by proposing amendments to the bill to build even more major projects across the country.
He said Conservatives want to incentivize even more projects by repealing C-69, the tanker ban, the energy cap, the industrial carbon tax and implementing “shovel-ready” zones.
“We do not need baby steps, we need breakthroughs,” said Poilievre of the bill.
While Carney wants to fast-track the bill’s adoption, at least one opposition party has said that will not happen.
Bloc Québécois House leader Christine Normandin said on Wednesday her party will want to study the bill in great detail and hear from experts in parliamentary committees, which are not yet up and running.
“For the interest of the population that we represent, we’re going to do the work,” she said.
During the election, Poilievre also promised to sit over the summer to pass key legislation, including a bill that vowed to approve resource projects within one year.
National Post
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