Building Canada Strong Act

The Building Canada Strong Act is a large omnibus bill that bundles together many changes aimed at speeding up approval of major infrastructure and resource projects, while also making targeted changes to transportation, shipping, trade and labour law.

Part 1 focuses on project approvals. It changes the Impact Assessment Act so that nuclear projects are assessed by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission instead of the usual federal impact assessment agency, sets a general one-year target for decisions on projects assessed federally, and creates mechanisms to coordinate environmental reviews, permitting, and Indigenous consultations instead of having them happen separately. It expands the "national interest project" fast-track system from the existing Building Canada Act to also cover broader "regions of national interest," where qualifying projects can get streamlined approval. Similar timeline and coordination changes are made for energy projects (pipelines, power lines, offshore renewable energy) under the Canadian Energy Regulator Act, including a new rule that cabinet decides whether certain large pipelines and power lines are in the public interest. Other changes adjust rules for approving works in navigable waters, give enforcement officers broader powers to deal with non-compliant imports under environmental protection law, allow certain environmental permits to last longer than one year, require regulators to consider practicality when setting conditions under species-at-risk and fisheries rules, and change how companies can compensate for damage to fish habitat.

Part 2 deals with transportation and supply chains. It lets the Transport Minister set up an office to coordinate approvals for transportation projects, creates a National Trade Corridors Council to monitor goods movement and flag disruptions, and gives the minister new powers to align Canadian transport rules with international standards, to grant or revoke security clearances for transport workers, and to lower the threshold requiring companies to notify the government about transactions involving port-based transportation businesses. It makes changes to port governance (allowing ports to share liability arrangements and create new types of entities), to the St. Lawrence Seaway's operating arrangements (allowing government to end agreements and appoint administrators if needed), and to marine liability and shipping rules, including allowing foreign ships to help out during declared emergencies without needing a special licence. An outdated law exempting shipping companies from competition rules is repealed. A new standalone law, the Enabling Digital Trade Act, is created to let businesses use electronic documents instead of paper for trade and customs purposes, and to let government departments share import/export information electronically rather than requiring physical paperwork.

Part 3 changes federal labour law for workers in federally regulated industries. It sets new timelines and requirements for collective bargaining, including rules for reaching a first contract with a new union, and creates a process for transferring certain workers' rights when one contractor replaces another. It allows the labour board to certify a single union to represent workers across multiple employers in certain industries and regions, gives the minister power to appoint a special mediator to help resolve bargaining disputes, and strengthens the government's ability to recover unpaid wages from employers or corporate directors. It also lets employers and unions opt out of a leg

This bill restructures how major energy, infrastructure, transport and trade projects are assessed and approved, creates new ministerial and Cabinet powers to fast-track and override standard review processes, and changes rules governing labour negotiations, wage recovery and digital trade documentation.

• Project approval powers — the Minister of Environment, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, and the Canadian Energy Regulator's Commission gain authority to issue combined decision statements that double as federal authorizations, grant exemptions from review requirements for pipelines and power lines under set distance thresholds, and fixed deadlines (often 300 days with possible extensions) replace open-ended review timelines.
• National interest project designation — the Governor in Council (Cabinet) can designate entire regions of national interest by order, after which projects meeting criteria set out in a schedule are deemed to have met approval requirements automatically; the responsible minister can issue a single document standing in for multiple federal authorizations, and can later add, remove or amend conditions on that document without a new assessment.
• Ministerial emergency and security powers — the Minister of Transport can grant, suspend or cancel individual security clearances for any purpose specified by order of Cabinet; a new ministerial order power under the Canada Marine Act lets the minister compel port authorities, port facility operators, or Seaway operators to take or stop actions in response to an "imminent and serious threat" defined broadly to include economic competitiveness and national security, with no sunset clause and limited public disclosure requirements where the minister considers information sensitive.
• Oversight and review — most of these ministerial and Cabinet decisions (regional designations, project authorizations, security clearance orders, threat-response orders) are exempted from the Statutory Instruments Act, meaning they are not subject to the standard registration, publication and parliamentary scrutiny process that normally applies to regulations; some decisions (e.g., impact assessment reports, pipeline certificates) are declared "final and conclusive," limiting the scope for judicial review to the Federal Court of Appeal within short (15-day) filing windows.
• Labour relations changes — the Canada Industrial Relations Board can certify a single union as bargaining agent across multiple employers in a sector/region without a representation vote in certain cases; the Minister of Labour can appoint a special mediator and can direct the Board to impose binding resolution methods ending strikes or lockouts where the minister judges a dispute harms the "national interest" (a term given illustrative but not exhaustive criteria); new wage-recovery enforcement lets a "Head of Compliance and Enforcement" order payment directly from an employer's debtors before a formal payment order is finalized.
• Digital and information powers — federal departments and ministers can collect, use and share import/export and trade-document information electronically among themselves under conditions set by ministerial order (also exempt from the Statutory Instruments Act), and compliance orders under environmental law are expanded to cover a wider range of goods, importers and remediation measures with enforcement officers given discretion to set specific terms.