Major government economic legislation C-39 clears first vote, heads to committee

OTTAWA — A key piece of the Carney government’s economic agenda, Bill C-39, passed its first vote in the House of Commons Thursday when Conservatives voted with the majority Liberals to send the bill for study by a special committee.

The 243-page bill proposes to extend the government’s one-project, one-review, within one-year approach to major infrastructure projects to apply to other projects across the country.

The legislation is a core part of the Liberals’ plans to pivot the economy away from reliance on the United States and present Canada as a reliable trading partner to overseas markets.

Before the vote, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said his party would support sending the legislation to a committee study in order to propose amendments to what he called a “weak, watered-down, long-delayed” bill.

Poilievre told reporters he wants the government to speed up the decision timeline on projects to between six months and a year, and to add measures to protect workers’ rights.

He also said Conservatives would seek to eliminate the industrial carbon price and create shovel-ready zones with pre-permitting for developments.

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government has said it plans to strike a special committee to study the sweeping legislation but the exact makeup of that committee has not been announced.

It won’t include representation from the NDP, which does not have official party status in the House of Commons, a requirement for automatic inclusion on standing committees.

NDP House leader Don Davies said he asked the government to allow his party to participate in the committee but Government House leader Steven MacKinnon turned him down, a move Davies called “fundamentally undemocratic.”

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May said she also asked for committee standing but was denied.

She said the bill is the “omnibus of omnibuses” and threatens to trample the environment in order to build things quickly.

“What is currently happening, this Prime Minister’s Office is more contemptuous of Parliament and less concerned about transparency and accountability than any previous PMO,” May said, in a scrum with reporters before question period.

At a press conference Thursday with labour and First Nations leaders, Davies and NDP Leader Avi Lewis said the legislation must not pass as written because of what it does to labour and treaty rights.

Lewis said the bill “must be scrapped” because of the massive changes it would unleash and because the government failed to consult adequately with Indigenous groups and others affected by the legislation. He compared it to omnibus bills tabled during the Harper administration.

On Tuesday, B.C. Liberal MP Patrick Weiler took some shots at his own government’s bill during debate in the House of Commons.

Weiler said while he agrees with the overall direction of the bill, he’s not comfortable with C-39 giving cabinet the power to fast-track project timelines. He also warned the one-year project timelines under the bill could undermine the government’s duty to consult with Indigenous communities.

Lewis said Weiler took a “courageous stand” and he’s heard similar concerns from Liberal voters on the doorstep.

“There are people in the progressive Liberal universe who are dismayed by this legislation and I encourage more of them to speak up before it’s too late,” Lewis said.

Poilievre was asked how he would enforce the tight timelines he proposes while giving Indigenous communities and other stakeholders enough time to consider the proposals.

He said Indigenous peoples have already given their consent to an aggressive infrastructure agenda.

“Indigenous people want to build, and I believe that Indigenous Canadians can be the richest people anywhere on earth if we unblock our resources, get the government out of the way and get building,” Poilievre said.

Also on Thursday, Cold Lake First Nations filed in Federal Court for a judicial review of Ottawa’s decision to designate the Pacific Link pipeline a project in the national interest. The First Nation accuses the government of failing to adequately consult with them on the project.

Chief Shelly Moore-Frappier, of the Teme Augama Anishinabek nation, told Thursday’s press conference with Lewis her community is not anti-development but this legislation must not pass as written.

She said she wants to see the bill amended to compel the government to obtain Indigenous consent for developments, to eliminate the legislation’s deadlines on consultation, and to require companies to clean up former industrial sites.

“Last year I told the Senate that Bill C-5 was economic coercion. Ottawa used the threat of tariffs to push First Nations into line, and we got painted as the problem. We were told the fast-track was temporary. C-39 takes it and makes it permanent,” Moore-Frappier said.

She said her community is home to deposits of copper, cobalt, platinum and other critical minerals — along with inactive mines that have been left unremediated.

The government insists it will uphold its duty to consult with Indigenous groups on projects and argues the legislation does not threaten the right to strike.

Bill C-39 proposes new rules on when the jobs minister can intervene in a labour dispute affecting a federally regulated sector.

Bea Bruske, president of the Canadian Labour Congress, called C-39 an attack on workers’ rights at a press conference Thursday.

Bruske said changes to clarify a minister’s power to scuttle a work stoppage when the “national interest” is at stake completely undermine unions’ ability to use the threat of a strike to extract gains at the bargaining table.

Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu has said the federal government will not compromise workers’ rights to strike, but she did not answer directly when asked at the Senate earlier this week whether the bill could impose limits on that right.

The Liberals argue changes proposed to the Canada Labour Code in the bill will put “guardrails” around the minister’s ability to intervene in a labour dispute.

Poilievre said the Conservatives will also introduce amendments at committee to protect workers’ rights but offered no specifics.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 8, 2026.

David Baxter and Craig Lord, The Canadian Press