 Sunday, June 08, 2025
Liberals ramp up their 'nation-building' efforts
Prime Minister Mark Carney and his Liberals took a major step forward this week on realizing their goal of creating 'one Canadian economy' by tabling a bill with exactly that title.
The federal government says the bill eliminates federal barriers to internal trade and details how nation-building infrastructure projects will be identified and approved more quickly.
Carney's got no time to lose on passing this seminal piece of legislation if he wants to hit his self-imposed deadline of Canada Day to remove internal trade barriers. Plus, this bill will be the cornerstone in his plan to get provinces moving on 'nation-building' projects for Canada's benefit.
Senior writer Peter Zimonjic has more on the new legislation and the reaction, including from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.
Read on for that, plus what's coming later on Rosemary Barton Live, including interviews with Energy Minister Tim Hodgson and provincial ministers from B.C. and Alberta. | | |  | Prime Minister Mark Carney arrives to hold a press conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Friday, June 6, 2025. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press) | | |  | Liberals table bill to cut trade barriers, speed up 'nation-building' infrastructure | | Peter Zimonjic, Senior Writer | | | | The Liberal government introduced legislation Friday that it says will eliminate federal barriers to internal trade and detail how nation-building infrastructure projects will be identified and approved more quickly.
The One Canadian Economy Act attempts to fulfil campaign promises made by Prime Minister Mark Carney to strengthen Canada's economy and sovereignty in the face of the economic attacks on Canada by the Trump administration.
Carney said Friday that it is "a bill with two equally important components, designed to create one Canadian economy out of 13. A bill that is laser-focused on building a stronger, more competitive and a more resilient Canadian economy that works for all Canadians."
The prime minister said the bill will on, the one hand, speed up the approval process of major infrastructure projects, reducing approval times from five years to two by introducing a "one-project, one-review" approach instead of having federal and provincial approval processes happen sequentially.
And the bill would also provide a boost to internal trade by recognizing provincial standards for goods, services and labour mobility as having met the federal standard. | | |  | Prime Minister Mark Carney's government introduced legislation aimed at reducing internal trade barriers and fast-tracking major infrastructure projects on Friday. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press) | | | Under the legislation, someone who is certified or licensed to perform specific skilled work in a province or territory that wants to take on a job doing the same thing for a federally regulated project will be deemed to have met that federal standard.
The government says recognizing provincial standards will open up job opportunities to workers and give employers a larger candidate pool to draw upon. The bill only recognizes provincial standards at the federal level. Workers certified or licensed in one province that want to work in another will only be able to do so when that province or territory agrees to drop their trade barriers.
The federal government has rules and standards for businesses on top of regional requirements that apply across provincial and territorial borders.
Under the legislation, provincial standards for goods and services will be recognized as having already met federal standards. That means a province's organic standards for food, or energy efficiency standards for appliances, will be treated as having met federal standards.
Nation-building projects"Canada's a country that used to build big things," Carney said. "But in recent decades it's become too difficult to build in this country. "For too long, when federal agencies have evaluated a new project, their immediate question has been why. With this bill, we will instead ask ourselves, how?" During the election campaign Carney promised his government would speed up approvals for infrastructure projects identified as being "nation-building," without providing a detailed description of what that means or how it would be determined. Friday, the government said a "nation-building" project would "make a significant contribution to Canada's prosperity" and "advance national security, economic security, defence security and national autonomy through the increased production of energy and goods, and the improved movement of goods, services and people throughout Canada." | | |  | Workers position pipe during construction of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion in Abbotsford, B.C., in 2023. Pipelines could be considered nation-building projects under the legislation. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press) | | | Examples of such projects include: highways, railways, ports, airports, pipelines, critical minerals, mines, nuclear facilities and electrical transmission projects.
Projects that meet the nation-building standard are also measured against five key benchmarks to determine if they will:
Examples of such projects include: highways, railways, ports, airports, pipelines, critical minerals, mines, nuclear facilities and electrical transmission projects.
Projects that meet the nation-building standard are also measured against five key benchmarks to determine if they will: - Strengthen Canada's autonomy, resilience and security.
- Provide national economic or other benefits.
- Have a high likelihood of being successful.
- Advance the interests of Indigenous Peoples.
- Contribute to Canada's objectives with respect to climate change.
Officials speaking on background said these five standards are not a checklist, but rather factors that are considered when evaluating whether a project is nation-building or not.
The parties doing the considering, the government said, include provinces, territories and "Indigenous rights holders."
Once something is declared a nation-building project it is put on a list of approved projects. That list can expand, adding new projects, until the measures in the bill sunset, which happens five years after it is passed. Cutting approval time by 60%
Once a project is added to the list, proponents will use the newly formed federal Major Projects Office as their single point of contact instead of having to go through multiple agencies and ministers.
The office will help walk proponents through the assessment and permitting process, consulting with provinces and Indigenous Peoples on mitigation and environmental impact measures that would need to be taken.
Carney stressed Friday that consulting with Indigenous Peoples throughout the approval stage will be an important part of the process. The Major Projects Office will include an Indigenous Advisory Council of First Nations, Inuit and Métis members to provide advice and direction.
Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler called the government's rollout of the bill a "huge disappointment," saying they received an invitation to be part of a briefing an hour before the government tabled the bill."They're not off to a great start," he said. "It's just a failure from the onset to do their jobs, which is to reach out to First Nations."
Nishnawbe Aski Nation represents 59 First Nations in Ontario in territory covering two-thirds of the province's land mass.
Assembly of First Nations Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak said First Nations and Canadians need time to look through the legislation to figure out how it affects them.
"I hope they don't ram it through," she said. "Let's do things properly and carefully."Carney also said the legislation will ensure that environmental protections are maintained for these projects.
He said the federal and provincial governments would work together to "achieve the goal of a single assessment" for projects.
And the federal government would streamline its own process further by making one cabinet minister, instead of multiple ministers, responsible for authorizing a project in consultation with the prime minister.
Baby steps vs. giant leaps
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said the internal trade moves were "a small step" that will have little impact on the domestic economy until provinces drop trade barriers between one another.
Poilievre suggested that to speed that process up, Carney should offer provinces cash payments as an incentive.
A number of provinces have already begun signing free-trade deals with one another including Ontario, P.E.I., Alberta and Saskatchewan just last week, and Manitoba and Ontario last month. | | |  | Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said his caucus would decide whether to back the Liberals' One Canadian Economy bill at its meeting on Wednesday. | | | New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador agreed to explore reducing trade barriers at a meeting in April.
Poilievre said that when it comes to energy projects of national interest, the best way to ensure they are built is to repeal the West Coast tanker ban, Bill C-48, and Bill C-69, nicknamed by some as the "no more pipelines act," which Carney has not pledged to do.
The Conservative leader said the bill is a start, but much more is needed in order to restructure the Canadian economy.
"It's baby steps when we needed a giant leap," Poilievre said Friday.
The Conservative leader said that after he meets with his caucus on Wednesday he will announce whether his party will support the legislation. | | | | | | | | | | | | |  | Coming up on Rosemary Barton Live | Rosemary Barton, CBC Chief Political Correspondent | | | | The Liberal government is trying to deal with U.S. President Donald Trump's trade war on two fronts.
First, as we heard this week, by trying to get it resolved entirely as the prime minister and president text and talk. Other negotiations are also happening and apparently progress is being made.
Second, by trying to strengthen the Canadian economy by removing internal trade barriers and moving forward in nation-building projects.
That legislation was announced Friday, and while it sets out a new process for how projects get approved, it’s still not clear which ones will get green-lit first.
That could mean a pipeline, but there are lots of other energy and infrastructure projects that might be easier to get off the ground quickly.
We will ask Energy Minister Tim Hodgson how the government will work to build consensus around projects. Then we'll speak to ministers from B.C. and Alberta about what they are hoping to see for their provinces.
See you soon on a screen near you.
Rosie | | | More from CBC Politics |  | ANALYSIS: Albertans for Carney? They're as impressed with new PM as they are with Poilievre: poll | While Alberta is a province where many people are newly interested in separating from Canada because the Liberals won — again — and nearly all ridings went Conservative — again — residents appear as likely to express admiration for Mark Carney as for Pierre Poilievre. Read more from Jason Markusoff. | | | | | International investigation led to arrest of man charged with breaking Russia sanctions: RCMP | The RCMP say the arrest of a Russian national who is alleged to have illegally exported goods to Russia came as a result of a transnational investigation, involving a number of ports outside of Canada. Read more from Darren Major. | | | | | Groundwork laid in Brussels for NATO leaders to debate 5% defence spending target | NATO defence ministers have inched toward meeting U.S. President Donald Trump’s demand that members of the Western military alliance invest five per cent of their gross domestic product in their militaries and related defence infrastructure. Read more from Murray Brewster. | | | | | Feds announce up to 6,000 more Canada Summer Jobs as youths struggle to find work | Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu announced Friday afternoon the federal government is creating up to 6,000 more spots in the Canada Summer Jobs program for young people — a move that comes as many struggle to find work. Read more from Benjamin Lopez Steven and Victoria Valido. | | | | | Share this newsletter | | or subscribe if this was
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