Regulatory Predictability, Not Government Favouritism, Will Get Major Projects Built

Government House Leader Steven MacKinnon’s recent acknowledgment that new legislation may be needed to accelerate approvals for major projects is an admission of long-standing failure. Canada’s regulatory system for infrastructure and resource development has become slow, uncertain, and politicized. While Ottawa now speaks of one or two year approval windows and continues expanding entities like the Major Projects Office, deeper issues persist: why must individual companies or projects earn special “national interest” designation to move forward?

Natural resource projects - whether mines, pipelines, LNG terminals, energy infrastructure - should not require a privileged lane to proceed. If a company wishes to operate in Canada, it should face the same predictable rules as any other business. Designating certain projects for accelerated and special treatment creates exactly the practice of picking winners and by default losers. It signals that success depends less on merit, engineering, application process or market demand than on political connections and alignment with the Carney government’s shifting priorities. This approach breeds inefficiency, rewards lobbying from well-connected friends, resentment among provinces and industry players left in the slow lane. More importantly it causes the flight in capital that we’ve clearly seen in the past few years. Business has realized that their money is more efficiently spent elsewhere.

The better approach is straightforward: establish clear, stable rules at the outset -covering environmental standards, resource management, Indigenous consultation, industrial benefits, and permitting timelines - and then step aside. Let businesses and provinces execute with genuine regulatory certainty. Investors can plan, budget, and finance multi-billion-dollar projects only when they know the goalposts won’t move mid-game. Endless overlapping federal reviews, indeterminate outcomes, and discretionary “assessments” that stretch years, destroy capital and deter investment. Provinces, which are closer to local realities and directly accountable for economic outcomes, are better positioned for development.

Ottawa’s recent steps, such as the Building Canada Act, the Major Projects Office, and proposals for parallel reviews and one-year decision caps, carry mixed results. Positives include attempts at coordination, reduced sequential delays, and recognition that Canada must compete globally for capital. These measures have directed attention to some “nation-building” initiatives and may modestly shorten timelines for selected projects. Why shouldn’t the system be like this for every proponent that wants to invest in Canada?

The drawbacks are more telling. By creating special fast-track mechanisms and centralized oversight structures, Ottawa risks reinforcing the very problem it claims to solve, the government doubles down on playing favourites rather than fixing the underlying thicket of rules. This risks legal challenges, uneven application, and continued perception that only the politically favoured advance quickly.

More fundamentally, these reforms do little to address the core concerns consistently raised by provinces and industry: duplication with provincial processes, open-ended consultation requirements, and the chilling effect of uncertain outcomes on smaller or non-designated projects. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and others have rightly noted that overlays like the MPO highlight, rather than resolve, systemic flaws.

Meaningful reform requires a different mindset in Ottawa. It means respecting jurisdictional boundaries, setting transparent and fair standards with predictable timelines that apply equally, and eliminating redundant layers. Businesses do not need government as a partner choosing favourites. They need a government that sets consistent rules, applies them fairly and then removes themselves as the referee of who is lucky and who is not. Regulatory certainty is not a luxury for resource projects - it is the foundation upon which investment, jobs, and long-term prosperity depend in a resource-rich federation like Canada. The surest path to building major projects is not creating special lanes for a chosen few. It is creating a system that works predictably for everyone.