Trade, Infrastructure Bill Becomes Law In Canada

Last week, Canada’s Senate approved Prime Minister Mark Carney’s trade and infrastructure package, the One Canadian Economy Act. As Connecting the Dots reported last week, the House of Commons already had approved the bill. Once implemented, Prime Minister Carney said the One Canadian Economy Act will:

• Expedite nation-building projects by streamlining federal review and approval processes to increase regulatory certainty, helping attract capital, strengthening the country’s industries, and moving toward greater sovereignty and resilience while protecting the environmental and respecting Indigenous rights.
• Remove federal barriers to internal trade and labor mobility by accepting comparable provincial or territorial regulations, where they exist, as meeting federal requirements for the movement of goods, services, and labor within Canada.

In a press release, government officials pledged to immediately move forward on consultations with provinces, territories, Indigenous Peoples, and the private sector proponents to identify nation building projects and implement measures to streamline processes for other projects. “With Bill C-5 today becoming law, we are removing trade barriers, expediting nation-building projects, and unleashing economic growth, in close cooperation with Indigenous Peoples,” Prime Minister Carney said. “We will give ourselves more than any foreign nation can ever take away by building one Canadian economy — the strongest economy in the G7.”