OTTAWA— The Liberals explained Monday how they plan to live up to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s promise to approve or reject applications for new projects within a year regardless of whether they qualify for special treatment by the Major Projects Office. 

The government laid it out in a new bill, the Building Canada Strong Act, presented to Parliament on its first day back after a summer break.

The bill would also try to head off strikes and lockouts in federally regulated sectors—at ports and railways, particularly—by changing how collective bargaining works. It would let the transport minister designate important trade corridors for special attention and reform port authorities.

The government signalled some of the changes nearly two weeks ago, but the 243-page Bill C-39 would give the plans legal force.

‘One project, one review, one year’: Carney promised at last week’s Canada Investment Summit that the government will speed up reviews of projects that require federal approvals, to get worthy things underway faster. Even a quick rejection is better than a painful process, he said: “If we’re going to say no, a quick no is necessary.”

Under the new bill, projects that need sign-offs from multiple federal departments would get those reviews simultaneously rather than one after the other.

The clock starts ticking once a proponent files a full application, with all the forms filled out and all the backing studies included. The only thing the clock does is tick, however: the bill includes no consequences if government regulators don’t meet the one-year deadline.

A senior government official briefing reporters on the bill, on condition he not be named, said the Impact Assessment Agency has recently finished its reviews—typically of more complex projects—in an average of 14 months, with other agencies’ and departments’ processes adding extra time.

The bill promises to co-ordinate consultations with Indigenous Peoples, too, so the same First Nation wouldn’t have to deal with multiple federal bodies on the same project. One regulator would take the lead, to reduce “consultation fatigue.”

Heading off strikes and lockouts: The bill includes changes to the Canada Labour Code, which covers federally regulated workers, to try to avert work stoppages.

The Liberals have ordered ends to strikes and lockouts in federal sectors, especially transportation, citing the costs to other businesses that depend on port and rail services.

Amid a rash of work stoppages (and threats of them)—as unions struggled with employers over how to deal with some of the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, such as inflation and new automation—business groups called for the federal government to give itself more legal power to intercede. 

Labour leaders warned the Liberals not to interfere with workers’ right to withdraw their services, and the bill doesn’t do so, directly.

“There’s no provision in the labour code changes that weakens the right to strike,” Labour Minister Patty Hajdu said in a news conference.

The bill would, however, entrench an interpretation of the code that the Liberals have used to end strikes and lockouts with an order from the labour minister, rather than by passing back-to-work legislation. It would limit the minister’s authority somewhat, by requiring that he or she appoint a special mediator first; that person would work with the employer and union and file a public report spelling out their differences and how they’d worked to overcome them. 

Everyone would be able to see why the minister used his or her authority to send the parties to binding arbitration, in other words.

Workplaces with difficult histories would also get more shepherding toward new agreements. 

After a round of bargaining that led to a strike, lockout or binding arbitration, the management and union involved would have to take part in relationship-building sessions before they get to their next rounds of bargaining.

If a contract is imposed by an arbitrator or legislation and lasts five years or more, the sides will have to start talks on the next one at least six months before the imposed agreement expires, to give more time to reach a new deal. Federal labour experts would be involved from the start.

The government is also promising to hire 100 new health and safety inspectors and 26 more officers to handle grievances at the Canada Industrial Relations Board, to clear backlogs and resolve complaints faster.

Open corridors: The bill would also give the federal transport minister the power to designate national trade corridors.

The term itself isn’t new. It’s been used to describe things like the rail and road connections that take goods to the Port of Vancouver, the terminals that load those goods aboard ships, and the routes to the sea that freighters take away from the coast. But it hasn’t had any legal importance. Meanwhile, each mode of transportation in such a corridor is typically governed by its own sets of laws and regulations.

A new National Trade Corridors Council would monitor the designated corridors and advise the transport minister of snarls and potential ways to undo them.

Marine and port infrastructure got a whole chapter in the Canada Investment Summit’s deal book. The bill would make port authorities more commercial, giving them freedom to do things like starting joint ventures with private companies—one potential means of attracting foreign investment.