Building Canada Strong Act
An Act respecting certain measures to strengthen the economy
Summary
- Streamlines major project approvals by overhauling impact assessment, coordinating federal permits under a single schedule, imposing firm timelines, and requiring regulators to weigh the technical, economic, and practical feasibility of conditions.
- Creates national interest projects and regions of national interest, enabling a single minister-issued document that deems required federal authorizations for eligible projects after regional assessments, with Indigenous consultation and sectoral safety guardrails (e.g., nuclear, CER-regulated).
- Modernizes energy infrastructure approvals (pipelines and power lines) with 180–300 day decision windows, 60-day Cabinet directions for major lines, 125-day condition-setting, tighter judicial review windows, and coordinated federal-authority inputs.
- Strengthens supply chains via designated trade corridors and a National Trade Corridors Council, a Transport Project Office, faster port/bridge decisions, emergency coasting-trade waivers, repeal of ocean shipping cartel exemptions, and clearer federal jurisdiction over port terminals.
- Enables digital trade by recognizing electronic trade documents and end-to-end e-submissions for imports/exports; updates labour law to front-load bargaining, add special mediation, and protect the national interest from prolonged disruptions without ending lawful strikes by fiat.
Builder Assessment
Overall, this bill substantially accelerates nation-building infrastructure, improves supply chain resilience, and modernizes trade and permitting systems, which should raise investment, productivity, and export capacity. While some new powers and entities add complexity, the dominant effect is faster, more predictable approvals and logistics performance with safety and security safeguards.
- Strong positives: firm approval timelines, coordinated federal authorizations, single-document approvals for national-interest regions, digital trade documents, competition in ocean shipping, expedited bridge/port decisions, and targeted labour-disruption mitigation.
- Guardrails for safety/security: nuclear and CER-sector confirmations, feasibility tests for conditions, and a clear prohibition on using port emergency powers to terminate strikes.
- Risks to manage: expanded ministerial discretion could become a bottleneck; new councils/offices must not add delay; and “deeming” mechanisms require rigorous, transparent criteria to avoid legal challenge.
- Suggestions to strengthen impact:
- Publish binding service standards, quarterly performance dashboards, and hard caps on time-limit suspensions and extensions.
- Require public reasons, evidence, and consultation summaries when issuing single authorization documents or using emergency powers.
- Codify criteria for the feasibility test so it improves implementability without weakening environmental and safety outcomes.
- Fast-track full single-window interoperability for CBSA, CFIA, Transport, CRA, and carriers to realize digital trade gains.
- Set clear, limited triggers and independent review for national-interest interventions in labour disputes; deploy special mediators earlier as standard practice.
- Provide cost-benefit analyses for new bodies (e.g., Trade Corridors Council) and sunset reviews to ensure they remain performance-focused.
Question Period Cards
When will the government publish service standards and quarterly on-time performance for the new impact assessment clocks and the CER’s 180/300/125‑day windows, and will it cap discretionary suspensions to prevent timeline creep?
What legal and constitutional analysis supports deeming favourable determinations for projects in regions of national interest, and how will the government transparently demonstrate that Indigenous consultation outcomes are meaningfully reflected in the single authorization document?
How will the National Trade Corridors Council and new ministerial emergency powers at ports resolve supply chain crises quickly without becoming another layer of bureaucracy or undermining legitimate collective bargaining rights, and what independent oversight will apply?
Principles Analysis
✓
Canada should aim to be the world's most prosperous country.
Accelerates strategic projects, improves supply chain reliability, boosts trade facilitation, and enhances infrastructure approvals—foundational drivers of growth and prosperity.
✓
Promote economic freedom, ambition, and breaking from bureaucratic inertia (reduce red tape).
Sets clear timelines, consolidates permits (single document for key projects), enables electronic trade documents, reduces duplicative port and navigable waters processes, and repeals the ocean shipping cartel exemption.
✓
Drive national productivity and global competitiveness, including removing interprovincial trade barriers and improving labour mobility (one country, one market).
Speeds interprovincial pipeline/powerline approvals, designates trade corridors, centralizes port terminal jurisdiction, and equips government to manage major logistics disruptions—improving national market functionality.
✓
Grow exports of Canadian products and resources, and move up the value chain by processing resources domestically rather than exporting them raw.
Faster approvals for energy and port capacity, digital trade documentation, emergency shipping flexibility, and more competition in ocean shipping all support export growth and domestic processing investments.
✓
Encourage investment, innovation, and resource development.
Greater regulatory certainty (deemed authorizations in key regions, feasibility tests for conditions, firm clocks) lowers risk premiums and encourages capital deployment in energy, trade infrastructure, and advanced projects.
✓
Deliver better public services at lower cost (government efficiency).
Single-window style coordination, electronic records, and permit concurrency improve service delivery; while new bodies add overhead, the net effect targets faster, more predictable outcomes.
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Reform taxes to incentivize work, risk-taking, and innovation.
No material tax reforms; impacts are regulatory and operational.
✓
Focus on large-scale prosperity, not incrementalism.
A sweeping, system-level reform of project approvals, trade logistics, ports, and digital documentation that targets nation-scale productivity gains.
Did we get the builder vote wrong?
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PartyMinister of Transport and Leader of the Government in the House of Commons
StatusAt second reading in the House of Commons
Last updatedN/A
TopicsInfrastructure, Economics, Trade and Commerce, National Security, Labor and Employment, Indigenous Affairs, Climate and Environment
Parliament45