On October 26, 2026, CCLA filed submissions with the House Legislative Committee and the Special Senate Committee with respect to Bill C-39, the Build Canada Strong Act. CCLA is urging the members of these committees to remove two sets of measures expanding already problematic exemption powers and limiting workers’ bargaining rights.
Part 1, Division 2 of Bill C-39 would significantly expand the already controversial exemption powers introduced last year through Bill C-5. It would allow Cabinet to designate entire “regions of national interest” where projects would receive a white glove fast-tracked approval service, without meaningful public participation or oversight. The power tied to “regions of national interest” would be subject to even fewer safeguards than their equivalent for “national interest projects” under Bill C-5. Perhaps even more worryingly, Bill C-39 would transform Bill C-5’s temporary exemption powers into permanent ones, regardless of the fact that powers to bypass existing laws must be the democratic exception, not the norm.
Part 3, Division 1 of the Bill would amend the Canada Labour Code to empower the Minister of Labour to end a legal strike that adversely affects, or may adversely affect, the national interest. In addition to not even requiring actual adverse effects before a strike can be shut down, the Bill does not define “adversely affect” or “national interest,” effectively leaving their interpretation to the Minister’s discretion. Such broad discretion is constitutionally suspicious, as it severely undermines the right to strike, which the Supreme Court of Canada qualified as the “irreducible minimum” of the freedom to associate in Canadian labour relations.
Bill C-39 pits the goal of strengthening Canada’s economy against respect for the rule of law, the separation of powers and Charter-protected rights. This approach paints an increasingly bleak picture of the federal government’s consideration for basic democratic principles designed to protect people of Canada from the arbitrary use of state power. We urge the members of the Committees to remove these provisions from the Bill.
You can read CCLA’s full submission here.
