The Calgary Chamber of Commerce is pleased to provide the following submission on behalf of our members. The Chamber welcomes the Government of Canada’s efforts to improve the assessment and permitting processes for major projects. As the economic centre of Western Canada and home to businesses operating across the energy, infrastructure, manufacturing, technology, transportation and construction sectors, Calgary has a strong interest in ensuring Canada can attract investment and deliver major projects efficiently.
Canada’s long-term prosperity depends on its ability to build the infrastructure, energy systems, industrial facilities, transportation networks, and emerging technologies needed to support economic growth. While Canada possesses significant advantages, businesses continue to face lengthy approval timelines, regulatory duplication and uncertainty that can delay or discourage investment. Regulatory certainty must extend beyond individual project reviews. Businesses make investment decisions over decades, not election cycles. A durable and predictable regulatory environment that remains stable across changes in government will be essential to attracting long-term investment in major projects.
The Chamber supports efforts to improve regulatory efficiency while maintaining rigorous environmental standards, meaningful Indigenous consultation and public confidence in project review processes.
Discussion Questions
What opportunities do you see emerging from these proposals to improve the assessments and permitting processes related to building major projects?
The greatest opportunity is to improve policy certainty, predictability and durability throughout the project lifecycle. Investment decisions are driven as much by certainty as they are by speed. Clear timelines, coordinated decision-making, and transparent regulatory expectations would improve investor confidence and provide project proponents with greater clarity throughout the development process.
The Chamber supports efforts to establish a single, coordinated federal review process that minimizes duplication across departments and agencies and provides proponents with a clear pathway to a final decision. A more integrated approach would help ensure that assessments focus on substantive outcomes rather than procedural complexity.
The proposed Crown Consultation Hub also presents an opportunity to improve coordination and reduce consultation fatigue. A more streamlined federal approach could help ensure Indigenous concerns are identified and addressed earlier in the process while reducing overlap between departments and agencies. To be successful, however, the Hub should replace existing duplication rather than create additional layers of review or oversight.
There is also an opportunity to adopt more risk-based and proportional approaches to project reviews. Brownfield expansions, upgrades to existing facilities, projects located within established industrial areas, and developments within existing rights-of-way should be assessed differently than entirely new greenfield projects. Similarly, enabling infrastructure that supports larger major projects should be subject to review processes that are proportionate to its risks and impacts.
Finally, these proposals create an opportunity to improve alignment between project approvals and supporting infrastructure requirements. Major projects increasingly depend on timely access to electricity infrastructure, utility connections, transportation networks, and telecommunications systems. Improved coordination across these systems would help reduce delays and support broader economic development objectives.
What are your views/ general impressions on these proposals to improve regulatory efficiency related to building major projects faster in Canada?
The Chamber is supportive of the overall direction of the proposed reforms. Canada requires a regulatory framework that protects the public interest while also enabling investment and economic growth. The proposals appropriately recognize that improving project delivery does not require lowering standards, but rather creating processes that are more predictable, coordinated, and efficient. Particularly encouraging are proposals aimed at reducing duplication, improving federal coordination, establishing clearer timelines, and creating greater accountability for decision-making. These reforms have the potential to improve Canada’s competitiveness and strengthen investor confidence.
While the proposed reforms represent a positive step forward, certainty will be just as important as speed in determining whether they improve Canada’s investment climate. Investment decisions are increasingly influenced by regulatory certainty. Capital is highly mobile, and Canada competes with jurisdictions that offer faster approvals and more predictable project development pathways. Businesses require confidence that projects can move from planning to construction within reasonable and predictable timelines. In addition to timely decisions, proponents require confidence that approvals and review processes are legally durable and capable of withstanding future policy shifts or legal challenges.
The Chamber encourages the federal government to carefully consider the role of ministerial and Cabinet discretion within the proposed framework. While political oversight may be appropriate when determining whether a project is of strategic national importance, uncertainty regarding project designation, approval pathways, or changing policy priorities can introduce significant investment risk.
Project designation criteria should be transparent, objective, and consistently applied. Any ministerial or Cabinet discretion should occur at the outset of the process, with clear criteria and timelines. Once a project enters an established review pathway, all parties should have confidence that it will proceed according to known rules and requirements. Limiting discretionary political intervention later in the review process would improve certainty, reduce investment risk, and strengthen investor confidence.
Beyond questions of process design and governance, the primary challenge facing Canada’s regulatory system is no longer solely legislative or procedural; it is increasingly one of implementation, organizational culture and institutional capacity. As such, the success of these proposals will ultimately depend on how they are operationalized across departments and agencies.
There is an opportunity to further strengthen a culture of timely, risk-based decision-making across government. Regulatory processes should focus on obtaining the information necessary to make reasonable, defensible decisions in the public interest while avoiding unnecessary duplication, repetitive information requests and procedural delays. Achieving this shift will require more than legislative reform. Government should provide clear direction to departments and agencies on the application of risk-based decision-making, establish staff-level guidance and best practices to promote consistency, and leverage existing jurisprudence, lessons learned, and precedents to reduce unnecessary duplication. Performance metrics and accountability mechanisms should be aligned with timely decision-making and regulatory outcomes, rather than process alone.
Capacity-building will also be critical. Staff must be equipped with the tools, training, and institutional support necessary to exercise sound judgment, apply discretion appropriately, and make timely decisions with confidence. Without corresponding cultural and organizational changes, there is a risk new legislative authorities will be implemented through the same processes and behaviours that have contributed to delays under the current system.
What do businesses and Indigenous Peoples require to advance major projects within a shorter timeframe under these proposals?
Businesses and Indigenous communities require certainty, clarity, coordination, and capacity. For businesses, the most important requirements include predictable timelines, clear accountability for decision-making, reduced duplication between federal and provincial processes, transparent information requirements, and confidence that approvals can be obtained through a process that is both efficient and durable.
For Indigenous communities, meaningful engagement must remain central to project development. Consultation processes should be coordinated, transparent, and supported by adequate resources to allow communities to participate effectively and on their own terms.
The Chamber supports efforts to reduce consultation fatigue by improving coordination across federal departments and agencies. At the same time, meaningful consultation cannot be achieved solely through shorter timelines. Indigenous communities require adequate capacity, access to information, and opportunities to engage early in project development.
Economic reconciliation should also remain a core objective of Canada’s major project framework. Indigenous communities should have opportunities to participate through ownership arrangements, procurement opportunities, employment, training, revenue-sharing mechanisms, and long-term economic partnerships where appropriate. Projects are more likely to proceed efficiently when relationships are established early, expectations are clearly defined, and all parties have confidence in the process.
Conclusion
The Chamber believes implementation should be the primary focus moving forward. The greatest risk is that new coordinating offices, consultation structures, or review mechanisms inadvertently add complexity rather than reduce it. New entities should have clearly defined mandates, eliminate duplication, and be supported by clear accountability frameworks. Success should be measured by shorter timelines, greater certainty, and improved outcomes.
The Chamber also encourages the federal government to ensure that lessons learned through major project reform are applied more broadly across the regulatory system. Smaller enabling infrastructure projects, brownfield developments, and projects within existing rights-of-way often face many of the same challenges as larger projects despite presenting lower levels of risk.
Ultimately, Canada’s competitiveness will depend on its ability to provide predictable, efficient, and durable pathways for project development. The Chamber supports the government’s efforts to modernize Canada’s assessment and permitting processes and encourages continued collaboration with industry and Indigenous communities to ensure reforms result in meaningful improvements to enable investment attraction, economic growth, and long-term prosperity.
About the Calgary Chamber of Commerce
The Calgary Chamber exists to empower our business community to advance a prosperous Calgary and Canada. As the convenor and catalyst for a vibrant, inclusive and prosperous business community, the Chamber works to build strength and resilience among its members and position Calgary as a magnet for talent, diversification and opportunity. As an independent, non-profit, non-partisan organization founded in 1891, we build on our history to serve and advocate for businesses of all sizes, in all sectors across the city.
