Liberals table bill to speed up major project approvals, avert labour disruptions

Prime Minister Mark Carney's government tabled a sweeping bill Monday meant to fast-track approvals for major projects, cut their review times and create zones of "national interest" to pre-approve certain types of projects.

Bill C-39, the Building Canada Strong Act, is also proposing major changes to collective bargaining, including the use of more federal mediation to get deals done and repair relationships between unions and businesses.

"This legislation will give our country the tools we need to build more, better and more efficiently. We know the challenge before us. We cannot control decisions made by other countries, but we can control how we are prepared here at home. To do that, we need the right infrastructure," Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon told a news conference.

Senior government officials briefing reporters said the proposed "regions of national interest" will afford projects the same treatment as projects of national interest. That includes requiring consultations before an area receives the designation and, if it does, allowing it to receive special exemptions to a dozen different laws.

Two discussion papers released in May said Ottawa was looking to create so-called "economic zones." Those zones would allow the federal cabinet to decide which activities would be allowed in them and give ministers the power to pre-approve projects there.

And while the discussion papers highlighted certain types of projects — such as transportation corridors, telecommunications networks and energy production and transmission — the bill, as written, allows the government to apply a wide range of projects to these zones.

The bill also proposes to remove the responsibility for reviewing many big projects, such as pipelines and power transmission lines, from the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada.

The Canada Energy Regulator would be responsible for handling reviews for international and interprovincial pipelines, transmission lines and offshore renewable energy projects. The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission would handle reviews for nuclear and uranium projects.

The federal government has said that during consultations on the bill, it was told by industry that the level of expertise on energy projects that existed at the Canada Energy Regulator couldn’t be found at the Impact Assessment Agency.

"None of this in any way diminishes environmental assessments or obligations to Indigenous rights holders," said Dominic LeBlanc, the minister responsible for breaking down barriers to internal trade and advancing nation-building projects.

"What it does is it says to Canadians, workers, investors, communities that we're going to do this same work much more efficiently, much more consequentially. And the economic moment the country finds itself in, I think, demands that sort of rigour."

Senior government officials also said the bill would amend the Impact Assessment Act to establish one-year federal review timelines, while timelines for small and medium projects under the Energy Regulator and Nuclear Commission would be reduced from one year to six months. 

Construction of projects with a national interest designation, or projects within the national interest zones, would be allowed to start before receiving all the necessary federal permits.

"It's very restricted, it's very limited," LeBlanc said in French, adding that the construction would be "preparatory work" and would be allowed in exceptional circumstances.

"In some cases, it can be preparing a site, it could be — it's not about starting a project," he said. "If it contravenes the project's conditions, it could be removed. If we're talking about a very minor project to start doing research on a certain site to prepare the schedule of payments for a potential construction, it will be in exceptional circumstances."

The government originally intended to introduce the bill in the spring but delayed it after pushback from environmental and Indigenous groups.

The legislation went through extensive consultations over the summer and Ottawa received more than 21,000 emails about it.

The government said earlier this month it had abandoned plans to exempt certain projects from laws designed to protect species at risk, after receiving an overwhelmingly negative response to the proposal during consultations.

The Building Canada Act — which was passed as part of the controversial Bill C-5 last summer — still gives Ottawa the power to allow projects with a “national interest” designation to skirt a dozen laws, including the Species At Risk Act.

Environmental groups attacked the substance of the bill on Monday.

"The government is essentially suggesting that we keep both eyes closed when we put shovels in the ground, by kneecapping federal responsibility for project reviews," said Julia Levin, associate director of national climate at Environmental Defence.

"This will leave Canadians in the dark about risks to communities, wildlife and nature. It also would make it practically impossible for the government to meaningfully consult Indigenous communities on major projects, which is constitutionally required."

In June, when environmental groups were on Parliament Hill lobbying against the proposals, Carney said the government was “absolutely not” tossing away environmental protections.

The bill also proposes changes to labour rules in Canada.

Senior government officials said the proposed legislation would require collective bargaining to begin six months before a collective agreement is set to expire, but only in situations where a current agreement is older than five years or if previous rounds of bargaining ended in a work stoppage.

The bill also would require businesses and unions to go through federally mediated "relationship repair work" if there's a work stoppage, and proposes increases in enforcement and penalties for bad faith bargaining.

Senior government officials said C-39 would maintain "guardrails" on when the federal labour minister can direct the Canadian Industrial Relations Board to order workers back to work and refer the matter to binding arbitration.

The text of the bill includes language stating that the minister can exercise this authority if it serves the "national interest." The bill cites three factors the government can take into account before using its powers.

Those factors are whether a strike or lockout has a "significant impact" on the Canadian economy, whether the work stoppage is causing any serious social disruption, and whether the minister's direction has any impact on freedom of association.

The bill also proposes appointing a special mediator for 21 days. The mediator would provide a report to the minister which would set out the bargaining issues and both sides' positions, and assess the likelihood of the two sides coming to an agreement.

The report, with recommendations, would be released publicly five days after being issued — unless the parties strike a deal.

"There are things in this bill that unions have fought for and that will improve protections for workers, including progress on successor rights in contract flipping, and protecting workers from wage theft. We welcome these measures," Bea Bruske, president of the Canadian Labour Congress, said in a statement.

"But on the right to strike the government broke its promise to workers. This bill gives government the new and expanded power to end a legal strike when it decides the strike is, or could be, against the national interest.

"We reject the idea that workers’ bargaining power is somehow contrary to the national interest."

Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu said the proposed changes will impose a "higher bar" on Ottawa's ability to end strikes.

"These changes mean that, as many people have called for, the labour minister must meet a higher bar before intervention is possible with this tool," Hajdu said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 21, 2026.

— With files from Craig Lord

By Nick Murray | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.