Mark Carney promises to consult with Indigenous communities in choosing projects under controversial Bill C-5

This will be the “first step” in the process to choose which projects will be chosen through the new legislation for the fast-track to approval within the government’s goal of two years. 

Carney also repeated pledges earlier this week, as the Liberal government rammed the bill through the House over the objections of some Indigenous, environmental groups and opposition parties, that the new process will respect Indigenous rights to consultation and “free, prior and informed consent” under the United Nations Declaration to the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The government House Leader said this week they expect the bill to pass in the Senate next week. 

“These projects will be built with Indigenous nations and communities. This is not an aspiration. It is the plan embedded in the bill itself,” Carney said Friday. 

“We all agree that more fulsome conversations are needed to select the nation-building projects and to determine the conditions that they must fulfil. In other words, the real work begins now.”

In the April 28 election, Carney’s Liberals won a minority government while promising to fast-track development projects like mines, pipelines and ports to boost economic growth, make Canada a “superpower” in clean power and fossil fuels, and reduce reliance on the United States that has imposed a series of tariffs on Canadian goods. 

Carney acknowledged the bill sailed through the Commons quickly, but argued Friday that speed was needed to confront the “crisis” of the American trade war. 

“This is the response. This is us being in charge of our destiny. That’s why we pushed it,” Carney said. 

Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty — a former grand chief of Eeyou Istchee in Quebec — said the promised summits are a “serious signal” that Indigenous communities are going to be “at the table” in deciding how projects will be chosen under the new process. 

“There have been more projects selected. It is something that we will define together,” she said. 

The bill passed through the House of Commons Friday in two votes, after House Speaker Francis Scarpaleggia ruled to split the legislation into two parts. All parties supported a less contentious section to lift federal barriers to trade and labour movement inside Canada. The other, more controversial part dealing with major projects also passed with Liberals and Conservatives voting en masse in favour, and Bloc Québécois, NDP and Green MPs voting against. 

Toronto Liberal and former cabinet minister MP Nate Erskine-Smith also voted against the national projects part of the legislation. 

The version of the bill now moving to the Senate came with a suite of amendments, including some that the government supported, aimed at increasing transparency and restricting some of the powers the legislation would create. This includes a provision to obtain the written consent of affected provinces and territories before the government chooses to fast-track a given project, and to ensure the new process that the law would create respects ethics rules and can’t override legislation like the Indian Act. 

The changes also created a new requirement for the government to publish a suite of information about the projects — from the contents of any studies and assessments about their impacts, to all recommendations about them from the civil service — at least 30 days before it officially puts them into the fast-track process.

Business groups like the Canadian Chamber of Commerce have also supported the legislation, arguing that a thicket of government regulations has delayed major projects, and that there is now an urgent need to build new infrastructure for energy, critical minerals and other sectors. 

But Bill C-5 remains controversial, including with predictions this week from some Indigenous leaders that it could inspire resistance and protest like the 2012 “Idle No More” movement because of a lack of consultation on the new powers. MPs have also condemned the national projects part of the legislation as a troubling expansion of power that risks trampling environmental protections and Indigenous rights. After the amendments Friday, the bill retained its proposal to allow the cabinet to choose projects to fast-track based on “any factor” it considers relevant, and to skirt laws like the Canadian Environmental Protection Act and Species at Risk Act when reviewing projects to speed up. 

“This legislation is an abomination and one that will be a stain on the reputation of this government and of our prime minister. As a first effort to lead this country, it’s a bad effort,” said Green Leader Elizabeth May.

Bloc MP Sébastien Lemire accused the government of reproducing the “condescending and colonialist spirit” of the last century towards Canada’s Indigenous Peoples. 

And Don Davies, the NDP’s interim leader, alleged the bill creates “Henry VIII” powers that allow the government “to override laws by decree.

“It guts environmental protections, undermines workers and threatens Indigenous rights,” Davies said. “This bill will end up in court.”