Parliament returns
Members of Parliament returned to Ottawa on Monday, September 21, 2026, after the summer break — and Mark Carney's government wasted no time. On the first day of the fall sitting, it introduced the Building Canada Strong Act, known as Bill C-39: a sweeping piece of economic legislation that bundles two files that usually move on separate tracks — speeding up approvals for major infrastructure and resource projects, and rewriting parts of the Canada Labour Code.
According to the government's statement, the bill is intended "to bring greater speed, certainty, and predictability to infrastructure project reviews, and support the workers who will build them." The promise, in the government's words: "This will give business the confidence to invest in Canada, accelerate projects, and drive long-term growth and prosperity that protects the environment and upholds Indigenous rights."
The centrepiece is a deadline: federal reviews and decisions on major projects would have to be completed within one year of a proponent submitting a comprehensive application. The bill also proposes to strengthen Canada's trade corridors and ports — formally designating strategic trade corridors, removing bottlenecks, and establishing a transportation project office to coordinate federal permitting and advance priority transportation projects within a year.
What the bill would change
The legislation's project-approval reforms target one of the longest-running complaints of Canadian industry: that federal reviews take too long and kill investment. By imposing a one-year clock and creating a dedicated office to coordinate permitting, the government is betting that speed and predictability will unlock billions in stalled projects — from ports and pipelines to transmission lines and mines.
The labour provisions are where the fight is. The government says the changes to the Canada Labour Code will strengthen collective bargaining by helping parties address issues earlier, reach negotiated agreements and resolve disputes — while fully protecting the right to strike.
The labour movement reads it very differently. The Canadian Labour Congress blasted the bill, arguing that employer groups are welcoming it precisely because it will create new powers to end legal strikes. It disputes the government's claim that the right to strike will be protected. The bill applies to federally regulated sectors — workplaces where Ottawa sets the labour rules, such as banking, telecommunications, interprovincial transport and airports — where work stoppages can paralyse the national economy.
The bill has only been introduced; its full scope, thresholds and ministerial powers were not yet clear in the materials released on day one. But the lines of the coming battle are already drawn: business groups and the government on one side, unions and parts of the environmental movement on the other.
The nuclear dimension
One sector stands to benefit more directly than most: nuclear energy. Bill C-39 proposes to simplify and streamline Canada's regulatory process for nuclear projects, restoring responsibilities to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission that were transferred to the Impact Assessment Agency under earlier legislation.
The move connects to a broader national strategy. In June 2026, the government released its Nuclear Energy Strategy for Canada, which aims to further advance CANDU reactor technology, develop ten new large-scale reactors, attract private funding, increase Indigenous equity participation and streamline the regulatory framework. Bill C-39 represents a major step toward that last objective.
Canada remains a major player in the international nuclear supply chain — from uranium mining communities in Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories, to research laboratories at Chalk River in Ontario, to uranium refineries and conversion facilities in Blind River and Port Hope, Ontario. Some 30 CANDU reactors are currently in operation around the world, with more under consideration. The government clearly wants the next generation built faster, and on Canadian soil.
The Carney doctrine takes shape
Bill C-39 is the domestic expression of a wider Carney doctrine: build at home, diversify abroad. With the Canada-US relationship strained under Donald Trump's confrontational approach — including tariffs and a visibly cooler trade posture — Ottawa is actively courting new partners.
The pivot to Europe is the most visible. Prime Minister Carney visited the European Parliament in Strasbourg in September, where he promised that the final structure of his proposed deeper Canada-EU alliance would go through debates, committees and ultimately a vote in the Canadian Parliament. The government says Carney proposed a partnership "far deeper and more integrated" than the current arrangement, spanning critical minerals, defence industries, energy, artificial intelligence, youth mobility, financial services, space, research and strategic autonomy.
The next checkpoint is the Canada-EU summit in Montreal on October 29 and 30, 2026. Renew Europe, the liberal group in the European Parliament, has urged the EU to seize the moment: finish ratifying CETA — the EU-Canada trade deal that ten member states still have not ratified — invest jointly in Canada's raw materials, energy, clean tech, AI and defence, and build a joint trade defence pact with Canada and other democracies.
Meanwhile, the American relationship remains fraught. US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer has said the administration is comfortable with the state of trade between the two countries and sees no urgency to return to the negotiating table — a stance that, in Ottawa's reading, confirms the need to reduce dependence on a single market.
The politics of the fall sitting
Bill C-39 is not the only file testing the government. In the first week back, ministers faced questions on immigration — after a Trump social media post claimed Canada was allowing vast numbers of "unchecked" immigrants into the country — on the government's artificial intelligence safety strategy, and on a Parliamentary Budget Officer report challenging how the Carney government defines certain types of budgetary spending.
There were sharper edges still. A New York Times report said Carney had admitted the government has planned for the possibility of US military action against Canada — a claim ministers were pressed on in the Commons. And a recent analysis found that one-fifth of the words spoken in the House of Commons in the past year were written with the assistance of AI, prompting questions about authenticity in parliamentary debate.
Conservative MPs, for their part, used the first week to press on the delayed opening of the Volkswagen electric-vehicle battery plant in St. Thomas, Ontario — now two years behind schedule — and on Alberta's upcoming referendum question on separation.
What comes next
Bill C-39 now begins its parliamentary journey: committee hearings, amendments, and a fight over the labour provisions that will test the government's majority and its relationship with organised labour. Unions have signalled they will campaign hard against the strike provisions; business groups are expected to lobby equally hard for the approval timelines.
The deeper question is whether the bill delivers what it promises. One-year reviews, strategic corridors and a coordinated permitting office are only as good as their implementation — and Canada has a long history of ambitious project legislation meeting the friction of federal-provincial jurisdiction, Indigenous consultation and environmental review.
For Carney, the stakes are clear. The Building Canada Strong Act is the first major legislative test of his government's economic story: that Canada can build faster, strike a new bargain with labour, and pivot its trade toward Europe — all at once. The fall sitting will show whether that story holds.
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