MPs to hold first vote on federal government’s key economic bill C-39

Poilievre told reporters before question period Thursday that Conservatives would look to reduce the proposed timelines for project approval to as low as six months to a year.

He also said Conservatives would seek to nix 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 C-39 committee but Government House leader Steven MacKinnon turned him down.

“We think that the Liberals know that if New Democrats are on the special committee that we will be nominating witnesses, we will ask questions, we’ll be moving amendments, we will be raising issues that you’ve heard mentioned here that they don’t want raised. And I think that’s fundamentally undemocratic,” Davies said.

A spokesperson for MacKinnon’s office said they won’t be commenting on the matter.

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 its effects on 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.

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 proposed in his legislation while giving Indigenous communities and other stakeholders enough time to consider the proposals.

He said Indigenous peoples have already given 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.

Elsewhere on Thursday, Cold Lake First Nations filed an court challenge against Ottawa’s decision to designate the Pacific Link pipeline a project in the national interest.

Chief Shelly Moore-Frappier, of the Teme Augama Anishinabek nation, told the press conference 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.

“Ottawa draws a line around an area and calls it a region of national interest, and every project inside it gets sped up. But designating a region isn’t the same as getting our consent.”

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 also proposes new rules on when the jobs minister can intervene in a labour dispute affecting a federally regulated sector.

At a separate press conference later in the day, labour leaders called C-39 an attack on workers’ rights.

Bea Bruske, president of the Canadian Labour Congress, said changes that 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.

“If the minister determines that there’s an economic impact, it can automatically mean that workers do not have the right … to walk off the job,” she said.

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” on the minister’s ability to intervene in labour negotiations.

Poilievre said the Conservatives will also introduce amendments at committee to protect workers’ rights but was not specific about the proposals his party would put forward.

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

David Baxter and Craig Lord, The Canadian Press

by The Canadian Press

MPs to hold first vote on federal government’s key economic bill C-39

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