Nation Building, with Caveats

Paul de Jong

Background 

In June of 2025, the Building Canada Act C-5 received Royal Assent. The Act enables the government to streamline federal approval processes to get major projects built faster. 

The Building Canada Act strategy outlined includes the following goals:

1. Realising Canada’s full potential as an energy superpower;
2. Creating new trade and economic corridors to diversify our economy;
3. Building our leadership in critical minerals to increase our independence; and
4. Establishing our data sovereignty at a scale to serve Canadians safely and securely.

Canada needed to sort out its own house in response to the introduction of tariffs imposed by the US. A push to build major capital and public infrastructure is a bold idea that had been germinating for years, and one welcomed by industry. 

Major Projects Office 

The Major Projects Office (MPO) was created pursuant to Bill C-5 to advance major projects in Canada, and acts as a single window for project proponents into the federal regulatory process to simplify and accelerate project approvals.

To date, PM Carney has announced two tranches of major projects. The first was in September of 2025, representing $60 billion in investments. In November 2025, a second suite of projects was announced, totalling $56 billion in new investment. 

While Canada awaits further action on the list of named projects and additional announcements, a number of questions are worthy of consideration.

Policy Considerations

1. The MPO Mandate

First, while allowing that the MPO has a rigorous process of identifying and selecting projects for consideration, an inevitable question arises: why are some projects selected, and others not? 

Simply put -is the Carney administration picking winners and losers? Does a selection-based process lend itself to possible regulatory capture? Would it not be better to float all boats by simplifying the regulatory process brought in by Bill C69 (Impact Assessment Act)? 

At the end of the day, the goal is to attract domestic and international investment. The Major Projects Office represents an opportunity funnel, but the funnel retains a pinch point of selected access. It remains to be seen if PM Carney's nation-building visions will come to fruition. 

2. Labour Supply Concerns

A second question emerges when one considers metrics of success and the implications that flow from positive developments. A charitable view of the Building Canada Act and MPO is that we will soon see a bevy of named projects begin to, one-by-one, achieve final investment decision, hastened to successful conclusion in the regulatory process, and commence construction. 

However, we know from prior cycles of intense mega-construction activity (for example: multiple simultaneous oil sands and petrochemical projects, LNG Canada alongside B.C. Hydro Site C, Trans Mountain Expansion Project alongside Coastal Gas Link) that profound worker shortages occur during these cycles. Canada has long known that it faces a chronic shortage of skilled labour. In downtimes, the pressure eases off; however, when multiple projects take place at once, investment is placed at risk as project owners analyze the ill effects of insufficient manpower to complete the work on time, on budget and on schedule. How Canada will meet these labour supply needs is a matter worthy of serious consideration. 

3. Restrictive Labour Schemes

Third, a lesson has been drawn from the Investment Tax Credit (ITC). Project owners receive full tax credits for their clean energy project only if they require contractors to pay workers according to "prevailing wages and benefits." This remuneration scheme is aligned to a select group of craft unions. Implementation of the prevailing wage scheme has triggered inflationary pressures, restricted worker mobility, ignored existing collective agreements and stifled competition. 

Solutions

1. Dual Education

The common theme amongst industry stakeholders is that we must work together and with government to bring more workers into the construction sector as skilled tradespersons. Fair enough. But despite common efforts, we aren’t fixing the problem fast enough. And we aren't innovating. 

There is a proverbial elephant in the room - a concept rarely discussed: we must significantly develop Dual Education programming in our high schools, which will boost participation rates in the skilled trades. 

The "German model" is famous for its effective system of providing high school students the opportunity to learn a trade certification while completing a high school diploma. This Dual Education system should be far more common across Canada, and pursued robustly with expansion of vocational high schools. 

2. Multi-Skilling and Dual Ticketing

A second solution is situated more closely to Canada's labour productivity problem and involves innovation in skilled trades education. 

Canada has one of the lowest productivity rates in the G7, with growth consistently trailing peers (Canadian output per hour is 72% of the US). 

If fixing the productivity gap was a simple matter, we would have addressed it by now. However, labour productivity would be significantly strengthened in the construction sector if we modernized our apprenticeship and skilled trades certification systems. 

The status quo in the sector is for a person to pursue education and training in a single trade for 3 to 4 years, ending with a certification. This often means an entire career in one trade (and if unionized, typically with one union).  

A more modern and innovative approach is to widen the opportunity path for workers. Multi-skilling, or trade-blending, is an approach which leverages common or overlapping modules of trade school education, allowing workers to perform work in adjacent trades. An example is a pipefitter performing certain scopes of boilermaker work - much of the apprenticeship curricula for these trades are shared. 

Another facet of modernizing the trades is Dual Ticketing. Surveys show that many Journeypersons are keen to learn a second trade - for example, a scaffolder learning to be an insulator or a carpenter learning to be an electrician. These paired scopes of work often occur hand-in-hand and in sequence on a project, thus lending themselves to Dual Ticketing. 

Related is the concept of andragogy, the educational approach centred on adult learning. Adults learn differently than youths, and, as a result, the andragogic approach suggests that an adult seeking a second trades ticket need not return to school for 3-4 years, but instead be provided with the assistance that would enable challenging a second ticket in a fraction of the time. 

3. Competitive Labour and Procurement Policy

Third, Canada needs to pay serious attention to ensuring labour-neutral and competitive labour and procurement regulations. The federal government’s Investment Tax Credit (ITC) has been a welcome stimulus for clean energy projects. However, the prevailing wage remuneration scheme is exclusively linked to a select group of craft unions. In so doing, existing collective agreements between contractors and progressive unions are ignored, along with the wages and benefits generated by non-union contractors based on market conditions. The Major Projects Office (MPO) must not mimic this failed prevailing wage policy, as is drives inflationary pressure, restricts worker mobility and stifles competition between stakeholders.

Conclusion

The innovations of Dual Education - targeting students from high school - and Multi-Skilling – targeting those already in the skilled trades workforce - are practical solutions to Canada's labour problem, and both worthy concepts for the construction industry to consider. This requires collaboration among builders, educational institutions and policy makers. 

Furthermore, as Canada nation-builds, it must not adopt regulations which favour one group of unions over another. Competition between unions - and competition between contractors - is not only the fair way to grow the workforce and economy, but is the industrial integrity critical to investment and productivity. 

To build Canada and expect to be successful at it, we cannot simply open the door to investment. We need to innovate in skills training and credentialing to drive worker growth and productivity, and we must ensure our procurement policies are fair and competitive.