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Opinion: Canada has everything — except a system that lets us build

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Canada’s economy should be the envy of the world. Instead, we’re falling behind, constrained by a system that struggles to turn opportunity into action.

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Our country has the makings of an economic powerhouse — private-sector capacity and expertise to build, an educated workforce, stable institutions, rule of law and abundant natural resources.

But the investment needed to succeed isn’t forthcoming.

That’s because the single biggest barrier to investment (and prosperity) in this country is the very system meant to enable it — Canada’s major project approval process.

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According to previous analysis by the Business Council of Alberta, over more than a decade, business investment per worker in Canada has declined by 11 per cent, while increasing by 45 per cent in the United States. Today, Canadian firms invest roughly half as much per worker as their American counterparts.

That underinvestment is a direct result of our country’s inability to get big projects approved. Our problematic approval and policy environment has created a graveyard of cancelled or abandoned projects.

Investors are responding logically. Capital flows to jurisdictions with clear rules, predictable timelines and reliable decision-making.

We applaud the prime minister’s ambitions to make Canada an energy superpower — a nation that builds, trades and competes globally with a diversified set of partners.

That is global leadership. Alberta’s private sector is all in and ready to deliver on that ambition.

However, the regulatory system remains in the way.

The Building Canada Act was an effort to streamline and accelerate major project approvals through the creation of the Major Projects Office and a list of projects of national interest. In many ways, it was an admission that Canada’s project approval system isn’t working as it should. But it also introduced a new problem: a two-track system — one for projects deemed nationally important and another for all the rest.

This is not how serious economies compete and win. To attract capital, to win, to lead globally, we need a system that works across the board, not just for a select few. That requires real overhaul. It’s the kind of change that typically takes time. But government has shown, when it chooses to, it can move quickly and decisively.

We are urging Ottawa to do so now.

Without urgently fixing Canada’s entire project approval and regulatory system, these global superpower ambitions will remain out of reach.

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The Business Council of Alberta has developed a clear, credible plan — From Barriers to Breakthroughs — that offers practical recommendations Ottawa must pursue to restore investor confidence and get projects built again.

The solution is not complicated, but it does require Ottawa to change how it does business.

Start with clarity. Provinces should assess projects within their own borders, while pipelines fall under a single expert authority — the Canada Energy Regulator.

Impose discipline. Reviews cannot drag on indefinitely. Maximum 250 days for large pipelines, 180 days for smaller ones, and two years for all other projects. And, most importantly, move political decisions to the front of the process — not the end — so investors are not asked to gamble billions of dollars on an uncertain outcome.

This debate is often framed as a choice between strong environmental protections and economic development. That’s a false trade-off. Canada can uphold world-class environmental standards and meaningful Indigenous consultation while delivering timely, predictable decisions.

Failing to reform the system carries real costs: lost investment, fewer jobs, missed economic reconciliation potential and reduced tax revenues to fund the social, health and affordability priorities Canadians care about.

The opportunity before Canada is enormous. The legislative tools exist. The policy case for change is clear. The public support for building big things and exporting our resources is high. And economic stakes are rising daily.

What is needed is political resolve. Federal leaders need to act decisively and urgently to remove Canada’s major barriers to investment and send a clear signal to global investors that Canada is serious about growth.

Because ambition alone will not build projects. Only a system designed to approve them quickly will.

Adam Legge is the president of the Business Council of Alberta.

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