JAY GOLDBERG: Carney’s Building Canada Strong Act sign Ottawa getting serious about economy

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The Carney government’s Building Canada Strong Act, introduced in Parliament earlier this week, is the biggest sign yet the federal government is ready to get serious about approving major projects in this country.

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Due to regulatory changes during the Trudeau years, namely the introduction of the Impact Assessment Act, major protects can be subject to multiple overlapping federal review and permitting processes that must occur sequentially. Because each of these reviews have their own timelines, information requirements, consultation processes, and decisions, major federal projects can  presently take five years or more to approve, if ever.

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If Canada wants to get serious about building major projects to strengthen the domestic economy and diversify trade and investment, that has to change.

Streamlining the process

Thankfully, Carney seems to recognize that’s the case.

Soon after taking office, Carney introduced legislation that allowed the federal government to streamline the federal approval process for major projects if the government chooses to designate a specific project as “in the national interest.”

While this was a positive move for those projects that the government has decided are, in fact, in the national interest, it offered little certainty to the private sector to encourage investment, as there was simply no way to know whether a proposed project might be deemed to meet that arbitrary threshold.

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Now, with the Building Canada Strong Act, Carney is signalling an intent to provide that certainty by streamlining the federal assessment process for all major federal projects. There will now be a one project, one review, one year model so that projects no longer have to be approved by multiple levels of government and multiple government agencies separately. Instead, all assessments, permits, and consultations have to happen at the same time and within the span of a single year.

The legislation also allows the government to designate Regions of National Interest. This will primarily be areas like energy and transportation corridors and industrial regions. What this designation means is the government can do a regional assessment in advance of proposed projects to determine what kinds of projects might be suitable for the area and pre-approve certain types of projects, which could cut waiting times further still.

Long time coming

The details may sound complicated and technical, but if this legislation passes, it will prove to be a watershed moment in Canadian history. For too long, major projects have died waiting for approval or been denied after a years’ long process, something the Canadian economy simply cannot afford. By speeding up this process and ensuring bureaucracy has to operate on a reasonable timeframe, the Carney government will be doing yeoman’s work toward bringing Canada’s economic appeal back from the abyss of the Trudeau years.

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Another key part of the Building Canada Strong Act includes changes to the Canada Labour Code, which has several major unions up in arms. The proposed changes will, among other things, allow the minister of labour to step in and end work stoppages when the federal government deems it to be in the “national interest.” Given that Canada has faced prolonged strikes in several key sectors in recent years, this should also help shore up Canada’s economy.

While it’s worth noting this kind of legislation could and should have been introduced by Carney when he first became prime minister some 18 months ago, the Building Canada Strong Act should be welcomed by anyone who wants to get Canada’s economy moving, get major projects built in this country once again, and ensure trade and investment gets diversified.

It is notable that former prime minister Stephen Harper and not Carney’s predecessor as prime minister and Liberal leader, Justin Trudeau, gave the closing speech at Carney’s investment conference in Toronto earlier this month.

It seems that, perhaps, after long last, common sense has returned to the Prime Minister’s Office.

Jay Goldberg is the North American Affairs Manager at the Consumer Choice Center

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