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C-5FederalTrade

C-5 (45-1) - One Canadian Economy Act

Chamber

commons

Stage

3rd Reading

Introduced

Jun 6, 2025

Progress

This bill creates two new laws to remove trade barriers between provinces and fast-track major national infrastructure projects.

Key Changes

  • Creates the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act, which makes goods and services that meet provincial standards automatically meet comparable federal standards for interprovincial trade
  • Requires federal regulatory bodies to recognize provincial occupational licences and issue equivalent federal authorizations to workers who hold them
  • Creates the Building Canada Act, allowing Cabinet to designate projects as 'national interest projects' and add them to a schedule
  • For designated national interest projects, all regulatory determinations under listed federal laws (e.g., Fisheries Act, Species at Risk Act, Impact Assessment Act) are automatically deemed to be decided in favour of the project
  • Replaces multiple individual federal permits with a single ministerial document for national interest projects, subject to conditions
  • Gives Cabinet the power to exempt national interest projects from specific provisions of listed federal laws through regulation

Gotchas

  • The Building Canada Act deems all regulatory findings to be automatically in favour of a project, effectively bypassing normal environmental and safety review processes for designated projects, though conditions must still be set
  • The power to add projects to the national interest schedule expires five years after the section comes into force, but projects already listed remain active
  • For nuclear projects, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission must confirm that issuing the approval document will not compromise health, safety, national security, or international obligations — providing a hard limit on the deeming provision
  • Similarly, the Canadian Energy Regulator must confirm safety and security before the Minister can issue or amend documents for energy projects
  • The Free Trade and Labour Mobility Act includes a broad liability shield: no civil lawsuit can be brought against the Crown or federal regulatory bodies for actions taken in good faith under the Act, though judicial review and Canadian Free Trade Agreement dispute processes remain available
  • The Act prevails over all other federal legislation in cases of conflict, meaning it can override existing laws without amending them directly

Who's Affected

  • Canadian workers seeking to practise licensed occupations across provincial boundaries
  • Businesses that sell goods or services in multiple provinces
  • Proponents of large infrastructure, energy, and resource development projects
  • Indigenous peoples whose Section 35 rights may be affected by designated projects
  • Federal regulatory bodies such as the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission and the Canadian Energy Regulator
  • Environmental groups and others who rely on existing assessment and permitting processes

Summary

Bill C-5, the One Canadian Economy Act, creates two new laws. The first, the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act, removes federal rules that block goods, services, and workers from moving freely between provinces. It works by saying that if a product or service already meets a province's rules, it automatically meets comparable federal rules too. For workers, if someone is licensed to work in one province, federal bodies must recognize that licence and issue a matching federal authorization. The second law, the Building Canada Act, allows the federal Cabinet (Governor in Council) to designate certain large projects as being 'in the national interest.' Once a project is on that list, many of the normal regulatory approvals — like environmental assessments and permits under laws such as the Fisheries Act and the Species at Risk Act — are automatically deemed to be approved. The Minister then issues a single document that replaces all those individual permits, though conditions still apply. This bill was introduced in response to economic pressures, including concerns about Canada's internal trade inefficiencies and the need to build major infrastructure quickly. It aims to strengthen Canada's economy, energy security, and sovereignty.

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Recorded Votes

DateDescriptionYeasNaysResult
Jun 26, 2025One Canadian Economy Act – C-5 – Third Reading – Amendment (Sen. McCallum)1558Defeated
Jun 26, 2025One Canadian Economy Act – C-5 – Third Reading – Amendment (Sen. Prosper)2848Defeated
Jun 20, 20253rd reading and adoption of Bill C-5, An Act to enact the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act and the Building Canada Act (Part 2)30631Agreed To
Jun 20, 20253rd reading and adoption of Bill C-5, An Act to enact the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act and the Building Canada Act (Part 1)3351Agreed To
Jun 20, 2025Concurrence at report stage of Bill C-5, An Act to enact the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act and the Building Canada Act31324Agreed To
Jun 20, 2025Bill C-5, An Act to enact the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act and the Building Canada Act (report stage amendment) (Motion 19)31306Negatived
Jun 20, 2025Bill C-5, An Act to enact the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act and the Building Canada Act (report stage amendment) (Motion 18)3370Agreed To
Jun 20, 2025Bill C-5, An Act to enact the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act and the Building Canada Act (report stage amendment) (Motion 15)140197Negatived
Jun 20, 2025Bill C-5, An Act to enact the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act and the Building Canada Act (report stage amendment) (Motion 11)30307Negatived
Jun 20, 2025Bill C-5, An Act to enact the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act and the Building Canada Act (report stage amendment) (Motion 9)30730Agreed To
Jun 20, 2025Bill C-5, An Act to enact the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act and the Building Canada Act (report stage amendment) (Motion 7)3370Agreed To
Jun 20, 2025Bill C-5, An Act to enact the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act and the Building Canada Act (report stage amendment) (Motion 5)170167Agreed To
Jun 20, 2025Bill C-5, An Act to enact the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act and the Building Canada Act (report stage amendment) (Motion 4)163174Negatived
Jun 20, 2025Bill C-5, An Act to enact the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act and the Building Canada Act (report stage amendment) (Motion 1)31306Negatived
Jun 16, 20252nd reading of Bill C-5, An Act to enact the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act and the Building Canada Act30429Agreed To
Jun 16, 2025Government Business No. 1 (Proceedings on Bill C-5, An Act to enact the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act and the Building Canada Act)30530Agreed To
Jun 16, 2025Government Business No. 1 (Proceedings on Bill C-5, An Act to enact the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act and the Building Canada Act) (amendment)29305Negatived