Canada Must Repeal Bill C-69, the Impact Assessment Agency, If We’re to Build Big Projects Again

Canada Must Repeal Bill C-69, the Impact Assessment Agency, If We’re to Build Big Projects Again

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Canada Needs Regulatory Reform to Get New Resource Projects and Trade Infrastructure Built cover

The federal election is now well behind us, and one thing remains clear: Canada needs to build big things again if we are to put our economy on a better path. That means new pipelines, power lines, ports, railways, and roads – trade infrastructure that would enable more of our natural resource products to reach international markets. These are not partisan talking points, but essential projects for our country’s well-being that would create lasting jobs and prosperity spanning generations.

Over the past few years, a discussion amongst Canadian business and industry leaders has emerged that calls for transformative policies to help Canada rekindle its global competitiveness. If we’re to be successful at this, we must acknowledge the counter-productive policies over the past decades that have hindered our ability to develop major projects. More recently, Canada's elected officials have also met several times to discuss the need to develop our resources and diversify our international markets, with the intention of strengthening our economy and insulating Canadians from trade challenges with the U.S.

It's all great to see, but concrete action is needed now.

Canadians are facing an alarming reality: our competitiveness has slipped compared to competing jurisdictions. Investment is leaving in droves. Major natural resource and trading infrastructure projects are often stalled or fail to reach completion, not due to a lack of will or demand, but because our regulatory environment is flawed.

Take Bill C-69, the Impact Assessment Act (IAA), as an example. Since its implementation in 2019, only one of 25 major projects subject to federal review has been approved [1]. That’s not a functioning regulatory system. As a trading nation where natural resources account for over one-fifth of our economy, half our exports, and 45% of our manufacturing output, a 4% success rate is a death knell for Canadian jobs, ambition, and prosperity.

The IAA piles on requirements that have nothing to do with building safer or better projects. The law burdens proponents with layers of red tape that delay investment and drive up costs. It’s not just frustrating, but costing us billions in lost economic opportunities.

The federal oil and gas emissions cap is another example. Several reports predict the legislation will cost Canadian jobs dearly and do undue harm to our national economy at a time when global oil and gas demand continues to reach new record highs. Even the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) has stated such.

Another analysis of Canada’s economic challenges reveals $670 billion of cancelled or stalled energy, forestry, and mining projects since 2015, an enormous amount of job-creating investment foregone for Canadians. This highlights the critical need to level the playing field and enable Canada to compete for capital investment globally.

This isn’t about ignoring our responsibility to build these projects using the best methods. But it’s imperative we stop asking private businesses to implement government social policy through a regulatory back door. The IAA has transformed a predictable approval process into an increasingly unpredictable one, scaring away investors at every turn [2].

Darryl White, President and Chief Executive Officer of BMO Financial Group, put it best.

“We are uncompetitive on tax, on regulation and on tone. And all levels of government – federal, provincial and municipal – must improve our competitiveness that underwrites our quality of life,” White said, via a press release by BMO.

“Success of businesses, small, medium or large, should be celebrated, not chastised. Every day Canada competes for capital and talent with other countries. Why would these resources come to Canada if the tone is unwelcoming; they have too many options,” White continued.

Canadians are already seeing the consequences of lost developmental opportunities.

We can’t get natural gas to tidewater to meet global demand. We’re behind in building the infrastructure to move electricity across provinces. Even minor projects are bogged down by federal reviews that often duplicate provincial regulatory processes and prioritize paperwork over economic progress.

Canada has what the world needs – energy, innovation and the talent to lead. As Laurent Ferreira, CEO of National Bank, stated recently: “We must make bold choices: streamline regulation, reduce barriers and empower Canadian businesses to act with confidence and agility.”

That starts with repealing the IAA, along with other economy-draining policies that just make absolutely no sense, such as the oil and gas emissions cap.

If we’re serious about securing our economic future, we must return to common sense, restore investor confidence, create a path to “yes,” and make Canada globally competitive again.

This isn’t about left or right. It’s about moving forward. Let’s put shovels in the ground and get Canada building again.

SOURCES:

1 - https://www.biv.com/news/environment/iaas-pause-button-slows-environmental-reviews-8271466

2 - https://www.thebusinesscouncil.ca/publication/time-to-move-from-talk-to-action-on-regulatory-reform/