Carney’s ‘nation-building’ projects bill passes into law — but not without Indigenous pushback

The Senate passed Prime Minister Mark Carney’s landmark ‘nation-building’ projects bill unamended Thursday, giving the federal government extraordinary new powers to fast-track initiatives that have the potential to boost the economy as Canada grapples with the U.S. trade war.

Carney’s cabinet can now streamline the approvals process by allowing some projects to bypass provisions of federal laws like the Impact Assessment Act, which has long been criticized as a hindrance to getting things approved in a timely manner.

While the legislation doesn’t dictate what should be built, Carney has signalled it could be used to greenlight new energy “corridors” in the east and west, including possible pipelines and electricity grids, new and expanded port facilities, mines and other resource-related initiatives.

Carney has framed the legislation as a way for Canada to fight back against American trade aggression, which has already stunted economic growth, prompted job loss and caused exports to drop.

The bill passed through Parliament at a breakneck pace with just three weeks between its tabling in the House of Commons and its passage in the Red Chamber — part of Carney’s push to get things done quickly and upend how government has traditionally operated. The bill ultimately drew support from both Liberal and Conservative MPs, and senators of all political stripes.

While the bill was approved by members of the upper house, some senators strenuously opposed it, most of them citing Indigenous rights as the reason. Some members proposed amendments that would have delayed the bill’s passage if adopted, but all were voted down.

The legislation itself states the government will recognize, affirm and “respect” Indigenous Peoples’ constitutional rights when considering a project to fast-track.

But there’s a fear among some leaders that the consultation process with First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities will be inadequate given Carney campaigned on making final decisions within a two-year timeline. These leaders want protections for what’s called “free, prior and informed consent” in the Indigenous legal sphere.

Paul Prosper, a Mi’kmaw senator from Nova Scotia, led the charge against the legislation in a speech to the chamber Thursday, quoting other First Nations leaders who called C-5 “not reconciliation” but a “betrayal of it.”

While saying he generally supports development, Prosper said he didn’t want to quickly pass a bill that has been panned by some Indigenous leaders as the product of inadequate consultation with affected communities.

Bill C-5 a ‘betrayal’ of reconciliation, says Sen. Prosper in speech

He said the bill may empower government and industry to run roughshod over Indigenous rights when building a project. 

“No one wants to watch our children grow up in squalor, with no access to clean drinking water, no opportunity for good-paying jobs and no support for our sick and dying. However, we do not want success and progress to come on the backs of Indigenous Peoples. We want to be at the table, making decisions alongside Canadian politicians, because these decisions affect us. They affect our lands and resources,” Prosper said.

Prosper said it’s the Senate’s job to stand up for regional and minority interests and there’s no reason to charge ahead after relatively little time to study C-5’s provisions and the possible consequences.

Prosper said his office has faced racist and abusive telephone calls in the days since he announced he would try to amend C-5 or slow it down.

“The racist vitriol and threats my office experienced was so intense, staff asked for permission to not pick up unknown phone calls. That isn’t right and it isn’t acceptable,” he said.

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Brian Francis, a Mi’kmaw senator from P.E.I., said there’s no guarantee the promised economic benefits for fast-tracking projects will be “fairly shared with Indigenous Peoples.” He said rushing through the bill could ultimately delay projects because of the potential for Indigenous-led lawsuits. 

“Are we truly in a crisis that warrants such exceptional and unprecedented measures?” Francis asked.

Other senators questioned whether so quickly passing C-5 was necessary. Speaking of the economic threats, Sen. Bernadette Clement said: “This sometimes feels like an emergency, but is it?” 

“Growing our economy, nation-building. Yeah, that’s urgent, it requires a timely and efficient response, but it doesn’t require the trampling of Indigenous rights and our environmental protections,” she said.

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Sen. Hassan Yussuff, the bill’s sponsor in the upper house and a former top labour leader, argued differently.

“Our country faces an urgent and immediate crisis,” he said of the U.S. trade war and its fallout.

Yussuff said Carney got a “strong electoral mandate to identify and expedite a national project” and he asked senators to go along with this “essential” piece of legislation to help the country better stand on its own two feet.

Similarly, in an address to the Toronto Board of Trade, Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson said C-5 is a “nation-defining piece of legislation” that will stand up a major projects office to move projects along quickly.

Under this new regime, reviews will be “focused on ‘how’ the project will be built as opposed to ‘whether’ it will be built,” to give proponents more certainty about investing in Canada, he said.

“This act allows us to reset that narrative about building in Canada — so we can go from delay to delivery,” he said. 

“We find ourselves in the middle of the most devastating trade war of our lifetimes. A trade war we did not ask for, but a trade war we must win.”

To address Indigenous concerns, Carney has said he will personally lead engagement sessions with rights holders this summer, starting with First Nations on July 17.

He said they will meet in a spirit of “consultation, co-operation and engagement,” with a focus on boosting Indigenous equity in major projects to share the potential wealth that could come from development.

This legislation also removes federal internal trade barriers, including a measure that considers a good or service that meets provincial or territorial rules to have met federal requirements. It also makes it easier for certain workers to get a federal licence by recognizing provincial or territorial work authorizations.

“This bill and the economic potential that it will unleash for our country is critical,” Carney told reporters last week. “We can build big, build bold, build now, and with this legislation, build one Canadian economy.”