Bill C-5: One Canadian Economy Act

This bill broadly affects businesses across Canada that trade goods or provide services interprovincially and face overlapping federal and provincial regulatory requirements — think manufacturers shipping products across provincial borders, professional service firms operating in multiple provinces, or tradespeople seeking to work in federally regulated sectors. For example, a food producer in Alberta whose products meet provincial standards could now sell interprovincially without separately satisfying comparable federal requirements, and a licensed electrician or engineer holding a provincial credential could obtain a federal authorization to work in federally regulated industries. The Building Canada Act primarily impacts proponents of large-scale infrastructure, energy, mining, and transportation projects — pipelines, ports, highways, resource extraction, nuclear facilities, and similar ventures — by creating a streamlined single-document authorization process that consolidates permits under multiple federal statutes. Business size matters most for the national interest project provisions, which are geared toward major project developers and their supply chains, while the free trade and labour mobility provisions benefit businesses of all sizes, from solo operators to large employers, who currently navigate duplicative federal and provincial regulations.