Canada Minute: Issue 91

Canada Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of Canadian politics.

📅 This Week In Canada: 📅

• The Senate will sit today at 6:00 pm, with further sittings planned for Tuesday and Thursday. First on the government's list of bills awaiting second reading is Bill C-22, the Lawful Access Act, 2026, which passed the House of Commons in June. The bill would let a peace officer or public officer, without going to a judge, demand that a telecommunications provider confirm whether it serves a particular subscriber, account or identifier, on reasonable grounds to suspect an offence. It would also let officers seize subscriber information without a court order in exigent circumstances, and let judges authorize requests to foreign service providers for subscriber and transmission data. A second part of the bill would allow the Minister of Public Safety to issue orders, valid for up to two years and subject to the Intelligence Commissioner's approval, requiring electronic service providers to be able to facilitate authorized access to information, and providers would generally be barred from disclosing that they are subject to one. Violations would carry penalties of up to $250,000 for a company and $50,000 for an individual, with each day counted as a separate violation.
  
  
• Prime Minister Mark Carney's government tabled Bill C-39, the Building Canada Strong Act, on September 21st, an omnibus bill that overhauls both major project approvals and federal labour law. The government is promising one review and a one-year approval process for major projects, and the bill would move impact assessments for major energy and nuclear projects from the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada to the Canada Energy Regulator and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. In federally regulated industries such as transportation, telecommunications, and banking, unions and employers would have to start renegotiating six months before a contract expires if the last round was acrimonious or the deal lasted five years or more. The bill would also create as-yet-undefined monetary penalties for bargaining in bad faith. It keeps the Minister's power under section 107 of the Canada Labour Code to order an arbitrator to end a work stoppage, but adds two conditions: a report from a special mediator, and the Minister's opinion, based on a national impact assessment, that the strike or lockout would hurt the national interest. Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu argued the changes strengthen workers' rights by putting a guardrail around a contentious tool. Canadian Labour Congress President Bea Bruske countered that the bill gives the government a new and expanded power to end a legal strike when it decides the strike is, or could be, against the national interest.
  
  
• Bill C-39 would also let Ottawa designate entire "regions of national interest", where every project inside the zone could use the fast-track powers of the Building Canada Act. Instead of separate permits from multiple departments, projects in these regions could receive a single conditions document, bypassing individual reviews under the Impact Assessment Act, the Fisheries Act, and the Species at Risk Act. The bill does not define national interest, and it is unclear which projects would qualify, what role provinces would play in creating the zones, or what would happen if a province objected. No project has received national interest status since the Building Canada Act became law in the summer of 2025, though the West Coast oil pipeline backed by Alberta and Ottawa could become the first as soon as October. The bill would also cut the Canada Energy Regulator's review timeline for large pipelines from 450 days to 300 days, and run assessments and permitting at the same time, with a goal of approvals within a year that the bill does not make binding. NDP Leader Avi Lewis called the approach risky and dangerous, warning it will guarantee more conflict around major projects, not less.
  
  
• Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne has offered the 129 First Nations along the Trans Mountain pipeline route a combined 15% equity stake, plus a $2.5-million payment for each group that commits to invest. The stake would be bought collectively at what the letters call a fair price and divided evenly among the participating groups, with low-cost debt offered to finance it. The letters do not set a purchase price or timeline, or say whether the equity is in the pipeline or the whole Crown corporation that owns it. Ottawa has promised First Nations an equity stake since 2019, and according to sources, the Western Indigenous Pipeline Group, which represents 36 Indigenous groups, offered on September 8th to buy 30% of the corporation and has yet to receive a response. Indian Resource Council President Stephen Buffalo called the offer "disrespectful". 
  
  
• The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is calling on MPs to stop borrowing, cut spending, and reduce taxes ahead of the next federal budget. The group warns that taxpayers are paying more than $1 billion a week in interest on the federal debt, with interest charges expected to reach $58.7 billion, more than the $57.4 billion Ottawa sends the provinces in health transfers and the $53.4 billion it expects to collect in GST. According to the government's Spring Economic Update, Ottawa plans to borrow $65 billion this year. Federal spending is projected to reach $594.8 billion in 2026-27, which is $6.5 billion more than the $588.3 billion set out in last November's budget. On taxes, the group wants Ottawa to eliminate the industrial carbon tax, scrap federal fuel regulations, make gas tax relief permanent, and end the alcohol escalator tax. Federal Director Franco Terrazzano said MPs should "put down the credit card and pick up some scissors".

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