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.
While the bill was approved by members of the Red Chamber, 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.
Sen. Paul Prosper rose in the Senate chamber Thursday to speak against the way Bill C-5 is moving through Parliament. Prosper says the Liberal major projects bill is being rushed and the government has failed to properly consult Indigenous stakeholders.
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.
The federal bill takes aim at trade barriers between provinces and should make it easier to build big infrastructure projects. Some hope the bill will translate into pipeline development, but there is notable opposition to the legislation as well.
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.
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.”
