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

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 removing 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.

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.

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 lived at the Canada Energy Regulator couldn’t be found at the Impact Assessment Agency.

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.

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.

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

— With files from Craig Lord

Nick Murray, The Canadian Press

by The Canadian Press

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

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