Prime Minister Mark Carney has said meetings with Indigenous leaders to secure their partnership are the first step toward implementing the Building Canada Act.Justin Tang/The Canadian Press
It took 20 days for Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government to get legislation through Parliament allowing for the fast-tracking of national projects.
The actual implementation of that law, the Building Canada Act, is on a slower track.
Turning Canada into an “energy superpower” and reducing reliance on the U.S. were central promises of Mr. Carney’s election campaign this spring, and the act − part of a bill known as C-5 − was an effort to enshrine those promises into law.
It allows Ottawa to designate projects meeting certain criteria as in the national interest. In turn, those projects will be granted federal authorization for construction without needing to obtain clearance under various other laws.
How many and which projects are still to be determined.
The Privy Council Office said that while the government is acting “with urgency,” there’s no fixed deadline to have a list of projects in hand.
Meanwhile, a new “major projects office,” whose job it will be to oversee that work, has yet to be set up. Details will “be shared in due course,” Daniel Savoie, a PCO spokesman, said in a statement to The Globe and Mail.
However, an overarching piece of implementation does begin this week: ensuring Indigenous communities have a say.
Last month, Mr. Carney framed coming meetings with Indigenous leaders as the formal first step of implementing the Building Canada Act, telling reporters that nothing can get done without their partnership.
On Thursday, the Assembly of First Nations is convening a half-day virtual summit to discuss Bill C-5 and a meeting on July 17.
Many Indigenous communities have voiced concern that the law will trample on their rights, and run roughshod over environmental protections, even as some are supportive of natural-resource development.
Also at the AFN gathering Thursday will be two senior public servants − Christiane Fox, deputy clerk of the Privy Council, and Valerie Gideon, the deputy minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs – to brief invitees on the coming meeting between the Prime Minister and First Nations.
Invitees for the July 17 sit-down, which will take place at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Que., include First Nations chiefs, modern treaty and self-governing First Nations (those that are not governed under the Indian Act), First Nations regional organizations, and tribal councils, the PCO said.
The AFN said it isn’t involved in organizing the July 17 meeting. The PCO said National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak and the regional chiefs have been invited to attend.
Regional Chief Abram Benedict of the Chiefs of Ontario and Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke Grand Chief Cody Diabo say they both received invitations.
Planning seemed last minute, they said, and no agenda has been released so far.
“You get several hundred people in a room that want to have an audience with decision-makers … unless you have some process, you know it’s not going to be very fruitful,” said Mr. Benedict, adding that he will be meeting with the chiefs he represents on July 16 to discuss messaging.
Mr. Diabo said he is waiting to see what comes of the meeting before discussing potential actions against Bill C-5, such as protests.
Planning for meetings between Mr. Carney and Inuit and Métis is under way, the PCO said.
Mr. Carney told reporters in June that he’ll use the talks to lay out a type of project and then solicit input on how it could move forward so there’s a “better shared understanding on all sides of what’s possible.”
Project pitches − and efforts to put them together − abound.
New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt is meeting Friday with MP Wayne Long, who is also a secretary of state in Mr. Carney’s government, to discuss that province’s ideas on what could be deemed in the national interest under C-5.
An eastern energy partnership to help ship hydro and wind power from Atlantic Canada and Quebec to Western Canada and the United States has already been cited by Mr. Carney as a potential project under the legislation.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith − who has made clear that she wants a new pipeline − said Monday that she hopes to have projects on the national-interest list by the fall. A spokesperson told The Globe that productive discussions between the province and Ottawa are under way.
All of the premiers will also meet the week of July 21 in Huntsville, Ont. − a scheduled get-together starting the same day the Carney government had set as a deadline for a new trade arrangement with the United States.