Canada is not short of things that need to be built.
ICBA Economics tracks more than $650 billion in major projects across British Columbia and Alberta alone, spanning housing, pipelines, mines, ports, powerlines, LNG plants, hospitals, water and sewer infrastructure. Yet far too many of these projects remain stuck in the “proposed” pile, waiting for a permit, a review or financing that may never arrive.
The waiting has become the problem.
Prime Minister Mark Carney began his mandate last year with a clear message that Canada needed to move faster. Yet major projects can still spend more than five years waiting for a federal government decision.
A new mine can take 15 years to receive approval and open. The Port of Vancouver, a federal agency, has spent almost 15 years trying to add container capacity at a single terminal. At the same time, the pressure to act continues to build as U.S. tariffs persist and traditional global trading relationships evolve.
The prime minister has described Canada’s situation as war-like. The comparison carries an obvious implication: a country facing that level of urgency cannot afford to take 15 years to approve a mine or half a decade to get a pipeline moving.
If Canada wants to raise its game, it has to build faster, cheaper and smarter.
Faster decisions for major projects
Faster should mean a federal decision in less than a year for every major project, rather than only for projects designated as being in the “national interest.”
Bill C-5 fast-tracks a select group while leaving other projects waiting in line. When elected officials begin choosing winners, there is always the risk that much more will be lost than gained. Markets, investors and entrepreneurs consistently identify opportunities and respond faster than government departments or agencies.
The solution is hardly a mystery. It has already been documented.
Governments should establish firm deadlines for assessments, provide project proponents with clear dates for decisions, eliminate unnecessary overlap between Ottawa and the provinces, and apply the same rules to all projects.
Ottawa’s own discussion paper released this spring outlined most of these measures. The next step is to put that plan into action.
But faster approvals mean little if the materials required to build those projects are sitting aboard a ship outside a closed port.
Canada’s supply chains also need certainty
Since 2024, the federal labour minister has intervened nine times to end shutdowns at rail yards and ports.
During 16 months in 2023-24, closures at West Coast ports cost 24 days of operations and disrupted $19.2 billion in cargo.
When Vancouver and Prince Rupert stop moving steel, glass and electrical components, construction projects stop with them.
Another round of port bargaining is scheduled to begin this fall. A province-wide bargaining unit, a special mediator and a standing arbitration authority for critical sectors could provide Canada with a predictable system instead of another cycle of annual crises, while preserving the right to strike.
Making construction cheaper starts with housing
The cost problem is particularly visible in residential construction.
Construction costs have risen 70 per cent since 2019, compared with 25 per cent inflation across the broader economy. Constant changes to building and electrical codes are a significant contributor.
Australia and California have both paused building-code updates in an effort to protect affordable housing supply. Canada should consider doing the same through 2030.
Development charges have also become one of the largest individual costs associated with building a new home. Municipalities collect those charges upfront, precisely when builders face their greatest cash pressures.
Federal housing funding should therefore be directed toward cities willing to reduce development charges or collect them when homes are occupied.
At the same time, municipalities are under pressure to maintain existing power, water and sewer systems while also building new infrastructure. Provincial and federal governments need to help find ways to finance that work.
Demand matters too
Making construction cheaper also requires addressing demand.
Housing starts in the Vancouver area fell 42 per cent year over year in July. In British Columbia, just 124 presales were recorded during the first quarter of this year, compared with roughly 6,000 during the same quarter of 2021.
The federal GST rebate for new homes currently reaches only first-time buyers, representing about 4.8 per cent of completions.
That measure should be extended to every buyer of a new home priced below $1.5 million.
When the foreign buyer ban expires in January, Canada should replace it with the Australian model: foreign buyers would remain excluded from existing homes while being allowed to finance the construction of new ones.
A tax system designed for today’s economy
Building smarter also requires a tax system suited to the 21st century.
Canada ranks 22nd among 38 OECD countries for corporate tax competitiveness.
A report released last year by the C.D. Howe Institute highlighted an even more striking investment gap. For every dollar per worker that an American business invests in machinery and equipment, a Canadian company invests just 32 cents.
This is not simply a Donald Trump tariff story. The problem predates the current trade tensions.
Comprehensive tax reform is long overdue. It has been a generation since Canada undertook a comprehensive review of its tax code. Competing globally and attracting investment in 2026 is difficult when the rules governing investment and capital flows were written in the 1980s.
Cutting red tape
Businesses have also become almost accustomed to the regulatory burden they face every day.
Federal rules now number almost 150,000, while the Canadian Federation of Independent Business says the average small business spends more than 250 hours a year dealing with red tape that could be eliminated without compromising health or safety.
That burden should be reduced to 25 hours.
Training the workforce Canada needs
Building smarter also means ensuring that the people needed to deliver these projects are properly trained.
Ottawa has committed significant funding to Canada’s construction workforce, but a $331-million training-infrastructure fund flows only through union channels.
That leaves much of the construction workforce outside the program. In British Columbia, 85 per cent of construction workers are not members of a building-trades union. In Alberta, the figure is 88 per cent.
A funding model that excludes most of the workforce will not build much.
The program should be expanded to include open-shop contractors, private trainers and colleges that are already carrying out much of this training.
No one preparing to tackle Canada’s historic infrastructure deficit would begin by saying, “let’s deploy just 15 per cent of the people who are ready to build.”
Canada has the capital, resources and talent required to build.
What it lacks is a system capable of moving at the speed this moment demands.
This fall’s federal budget provides the government with an opportunity to take on that generational challenge.
Chris Gardner is president and CEO of the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association. Send Industry Perspectives Op-Ed comments and column ideas to editor@dailycommercialnews.com.
