OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney ran on promises to get big nation-building projects finished faster and to break down barriers to internal Canadian trade. On Friday, the Liberals presented the legislation, now called Bill C-5, that they hope will keep both pledges.

Here’s what you need to know.

Blessed projects

Too many authorities get to weigh in on big projects like pipelines and transportation corridors, Carney said in explaining the bill, which would make things like the construction for Montreal’s Expo ’67 and the St. Lawrence Seaway all but impossible now. Part of the trouble, he said, is that different approvals often happen sequentially instead of in parallel.

“That process is arduous. It takes too long,” Carney said.

Bill C-5 allows the government to pluck certain projects from the masses for special treatment.

How projects make the list

When you get down to it, the federal cabinet decides. Bill C-5 includes a list of five factors to consider, namely whether a project can:

• strengthen Canada’s autonomy, resilience and security;
• provide economic or other benefits to Canada;
• have a high likelihood of successful execution;
• advance the interests of Indigenous peoples; and
• contribute to clean growth and help Canada meet its objectives on climate change.

But there’s also catch-all language that says the prime minister and ministers can consider any factor they consider relevant. So it’s up to them.

What the magic touch does

For the selected projects, all federal government approvals will be combined into one process, overseen by one minister, that produces one set of conditions for proponents to meet. Projects will still need the same assessments as they do now, but those are supposed to be better coordinated.

“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?’” Carney said.

The people asking that question will be in a new office that will be the proponents’ point of contact with the feds. Projects not selected for this treatment will continue under the existing system.

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, which has long lamented slow federal approvals, welcomed the flexibility the Liberals are seeking to add, but said, “the federal government also needs to take a hard look at the current inefficient and cumbersome regulatory environment.”

If all else fails

Deep in the bill is a clause that would give the cabinet the power to simply exempt projects on the special list from certain laws—including the Impact Assessment Act, Species at Risk Act and Fisheries Act. The ministers, together, could also add or delete laws from the list at will.

Ontario’s provincial Bill 5, which Premier Doug Ford’s government passed Wednesday, gives his cabinet similar powers over provincial laws.

Hold it right there

Indigenous leaders have been sounding alarms about how quickly the bill itself has been put together, and questioning whether it respects their rights under the Canadian Constitution and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

A government official who briefed reporters on the bill before Carney spoke—on condition that she not be named—said that “about 66” Indigenous groups had been invited to comment on the bill in a process that began May 23. The government heard from about 40, she said.

 

Carney said on Friday that the legislation “mandates that there must be meaningful consultations with Indigenous Peoples.” That will apply both when the cabinet decides whether to give a project national-interest treatment, and as each project is planned, he said.

The new major-projects office will have an advisory council with First Nations, Métis and Inuit representatives, he said. “Indigenous expertise will be at the centre of this new process.”

Notably, though, Carney talked about consultations. He did not say that projects that impact Indigenous rights will be approved only if affected groups give consent, which is the language that Indigenous leaders often use.

“If free, prior and informed consent is not obtained from First Nations, this legislation will be marred and mired in conflict and protracted litigation,” warned National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak of the Assembly of First Nations, in a public reply to the government’s request for the AFN’s views on the bill.

Environmental lawyer Anna Johnston of West Coast Environmental Law called Bill C-5 undemocratic and irresponsible.

“Deciding to approve projects before making sure they are sound is like building a house and then calling an architect to ask if you got it right,” she said in a statement.

Internal trade

The other component of Bill C-5 tries to make good on the Liberals’ promise to eliminate federal obstacles to free trade within Canada. Most of these barriers are set up between provinces, but some are imposed by the federal government.

The bill would allow the federal government to recognize provincial standards as equivalent to its own for both goods and worker credentials.

If a province has rules for what makes a farm product organic, for instance, the federal authorities could decide those are good enough that a producer doesn’t need to go through a separate process to get a federal organic certification, too.

By when?

Citing the trade war with the United States, Carney said the bill is “a top priority for this government, and we will do everything to get it passed before the summer.”

The House of Commons is scheduled to sit for only two more weeks, however, before breaking on June 20. “If Parliament needs to sit longer, it should sit longer in order to get [this bill] passed,” Carney said.

The Liberals, given their minority status in the House, won’t be able to pass the bill alone.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre plans to study the details of the legislation over the next few days before pledging his party’s support, but said the Conservatives won’t stand in the way of getting even one project built. 

He called the bill “baby steps, when we needed a giant leap.” Given the prime minister’s admission about the lengthy and arduous government approval process, he challenged the government to overhaul the entire system, rather than focus on a chosen few exceptions to the usual rules. 

With files from Laura Osman