Building for Tomorrow
Issue #1 | August 2025

Canada is about to enter a new era of nation-building. As Ottawa promises to “build, baby, build,” the provinces line up behind new trade corridors and the private sector awaits new business opportunities – the stakes for Canada’s economic future are high.

Rail lines, airports, ports, roads and pipelines are essential contributors to national prosperity. However, not all infrastructure is created equal, and the “how” of project approvals deserves just as much attention as the “what.”

That is why we are launching Building for Tomorrow – a series that tracks, analyzes, explains and critiques the policies, projects and politics shaping Canada’s trade-enabling infrastructure.

The new corridor agenda

Canada has a new trade corridor agenda. The federal government’s second priority (after establishing a new economic and security relationship with the U.S.) is “expediting nation-building projects that will connect and transform our country.” This priority is also being reflected in the provinces: Canada’s first ministers collectively agreed that corridors are “crucial for driving Canadian productivity growth, energy security and economic competitiveness”; the western premiers have agreed to collaborate on new economic corridors.

Canada has a long-standing infrastructure deficit (e.g., as explored by CWF in multiple reports), so this work is a matter of national significance. However, it is important that Canada invest in projects that are shovel worthy, not just shovel ready.

Shovel worthy means choosing projects that deliver the biggest economic and social returns for Canada, not just the ones that are easiest to approve. Prioritizing these projects will ensure Canadians get the biggest bang for their tax buck. The Building Canada Act, which passed into law in June 2025, has a distinctly shovel-ready flavour, with its emphasis on fast-tracking approval processes, but doesn’t fix underlying problems, nor does it promote intelligence gathering to prioritize projects. The act may be necessary in the short term, though, since Canada’s approval processes can be glacially slow, and urgent action is necessary in the face of U.S. economic aggression.

Potential national projects

Both the federal government and the provinces have identified a variety of potential projects for investment. Headline items so far include:

  • Port of Churchill expansion
  • High-speed rail projects
  • A trade corridor to Grays Bay in Nunavut
  • A new Alberta to B.C. pipeline
  • Arctic infrastructure to strengthen national security

Other opportunities are also emerging, including Ottawa’s “one window” project review process and a new Alberta-Ontario agreement to explore a west-to-east pipeline to James Bay.

Status report

Major Projects Office to launch by Labour Day

Part of the Liberal Party’s 2025 platform was to implement a Major Federal Projects Office, establishing “one window” for project decisions, with all decisions being made in a maximum of two years. The office is set to launch by Labour Day.

Ottawa pledges to sign cooperation and substitution agreements with willing provinces

The government also committed to signing cooperation and substitution agreements with all willing provinces within six months (I.e., by the end of October 2025). As of this writing, the only such substitution agreement in place (between the federal government and B.C.) predates the election commitment. It was this agreement that facilitated the approval of Cedar LNG. “One project, one review” will be spearheaded by the Major Federal Projects Office.

The Building Canada Act is a band-aid solution

The Building Canada Act is supposed to enable the permits, licenses and approvals of specific acts and regulations to be overridden or fast-tracked for identified projects. Put bluntly, the act lets parliament fast-track projects it considers too important to get caught up in red tape. Whether that’s a good short-term fix is up for debate, but it won’t solve the bigger issues: duplication between jurisdictions, endless approval processes, unclear rules and high political risk. Case in point is the condemnation that the act has drawn from some Indigenous communities, concerned that it will result in their rights being ignored or overridden.

No major projects yet approved

When it comes to major national projects, nothing has been approved yet under the new act. As projects are identified, they will first be published in the Canada Gazette for 30 days before being added to the Building Canada Act’s schedule of projects. The federal government is currently consulting with the provinces, territories, Indigenous peoples and the private sector to identify which projects should be added to the schedule. Five priority areas were identified as areas of common ground during a first ministers’ meeting in June: Western and Arctic Corridors, Eastern Energy Partnership, Critical Minerals Pathways, the Next Stage of Nuclear and Export Diversification.

Other initiatives

There are ongoing negotiations between Alberta, B.C. and the federal government regarding the Alberta to Prince Rupert pipeline. Alberta has been pushing to have it included in the national project list. The federal government has signalled early support for this project, with Carney saying it is “highly, highly likely” an oil pipeline will be on the list. However, such an initiative currently lacks an industry proponent. Meanwhile, B.C.’s stance on a new pipeline has gone back and forth, with Premier Eby recently stating his government would not oppose a privately backed proposal.

Alberta, Ontario and Saskatchewan signed an MOU in July 2025 to “build the new pipelines, rail lines and other energy and trade infrastructure necessary to bring Ontario critical minerals and Western Canadian oil and gas to new markets.” Manitoba, however, has not yet joined, citing the need for consensus from Indigenous stakeholders.

What comes next

This space is evolving rapidly. Watch for:

  • The establishment of the new Major Projects Office
  • First projects published in the Canadian Gazette under the Building Canada Act
  • New provincial MOUs on energy and trade
  • Fresh federal-provincial Cooperation and Substitution Agreements

While the federal government appears to recognize the need for greater investment and the infrastructure to support it, the Building Canada Act can’t do it all. Fixing underlying problems with the Impact Assessment Act, removing the oil and gas sector emissions cap and recognizing the unconstitutionality of the Clean Electricity Standard would go a long way to drive prosperity for all Canadians.

Each month, Building for Tomorrow explores new developments in trade-enabling infrastructure in Canada, such as the rationale behind national projects, negotiations and agreements between different Canadian jurisdictions and developments in approval processes and policy.

Building for Tomorrow is written by Ryan Workman. If you have any developments you’d like to see featured or topics that you think should be covered, please send them to .

Further reading