By: Shiri Pasternak and Eve Saint
It has been one year since Prime Minister Mark Carney introduced the Building Canada Act in Parliament. Since then, a succession of new laws has hollowed out legal protections for the environment, Indigenous rights, migration, and labour.
The act itself establishes a fast-track approvals system for “projects of national interest” that authorizes ministers to override existing laws protecting the environment and Indigenous rights, including the duty to consult.
A total of 19 government bills received royal assent during the spring sitting, while two other key pieces of legislation passed the House of Commons and will be taken up by the Senate this fall. Among them are carve-outs allowing Cabinet to approve harmful pesticides even when Health Canada has deemed them too dangerous. The Clean Water Act also carves out the human right to water contained in earlier versions of the legislation. That right has now been downgraded to a mere goal of “progressive realization” in addressing the First Nations water crisis.
The Lawful Access Act reintroduces the most controversial provisions of the Strong Borders Act, proposing new surveillance authorizations alongside integrated enforcement and data-sharing systems with the United States. The Combatting Hate Act was opposed by more than 40 civil society organizations over serious concerns about its implications for constitutional rights and civil liberties, including vague language that could be used to criminalize protesters and curtail freedom of expression.
The Strong Borders Act also grants broad new powers to the immigration minister to cancel immigration documents based on an undefined “public interest.” Meanwhile, a carve-out the size of Alberta is unfolding through the expansion of two-tier health care this fall in contravention of the Canada Health Act, yet Carney has failed to intervene to enforce the law. Further federal cuts to health spending worth billions are also expected.
Austerity is everywhere, with a $5 billion cut to public transit on the horizon and sweeping reductions to the public service. If these were the policies of Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, Liberal Canadians would be losing their minds over the creeping concentration of power on Parliament Hill.
Instead, many Canadians have been lulled into a false sense of security by the hope that Carney’s plan will rescue a battered economy. He boasts of having secured “20 new economic and security partnerships” across five continents.
It is an ambitious plan — but what, exactly, is he selling?
The trade deals will come home in September, when Carney hosts his Investment Summit in Toronto. Housing and public infrastructure are on the table, along with AI data centres, defence contracts, and critical minerals.
Carney has also said he wants Canada to become the world’s supplier of liquefied natural gas by 2030. More recently, he stated that he has no plans to establish climate targets because they are “a threat to national unity.”
Yet little of this foreign investment is likely to trickle down to address the affordability crisis. Income inequality is at an all-time high in Canada, and gutting the public service while diverting half a trillion dollars to defence will only deepen household debt and enrich global investors.
The model is also deeply destructive. LNG Canada Phase 1 in Kitimat, British Columbia, is experiencing a flare stack malfunction that has burned an additional 160,000 cubic metres of waste gas in 2025 beyond what was originally proposed, leaving black residue on vehicles and generating excessive noise and light pollution. Climate groups and Indigenous communities have raised the alarm, demanding that the LNG consortium address the problem before emissions potentially double under the Canada-BC memorandum of understanding supporting public funding for LNG Canada Phase 2, which would add two new processing units at the Kitimat facility.
These are Faustian bargains for First Nations, workers, and the environment, with few signs of alternative investment on the horizon.
This is a zombie economy, sustained by extraction and speculation rather than a progressive vision for Canada’s future.
Carney’s rhetoric about nationalism and economic sovereignty rings hollow, yet there are models of economic resilience that could genuinely transform Canadians’ lives.
The care economy — centred on education, health care, and public services — reframes traditional measures of growth by focusing instead on outcomes: lower long-term health care costs through better elder care, pathways to regularization for migrants, and higher lifetime earnings through universal child care.
Reindustrialization policies could foster circular manufacturing, electrified rail, and clean technology production while prioritizing First Nations employment and unionized jobs.
A climate-resilient energy policy could establish new Crown corporations to confront global heating and extreme weather while redirecting the billions currently spent on fossil fuel subsidies toward de-risking guarantees for community-owned geothermal, solar, and wind energy.
Trump poses a clear and present danger to this country and its economy. But Canadians are also under attack from within.
This article was originally published by Canadian Dimension on July 30, 2026, titled “The new rules of Carney’s carve-out economy.” Shiri Pasternak and Eve Saint are the co-founders of 8th Fire Rising, an Indigenous-led coalition of workers, climate justice organizations, and Indigenous activists formed in response to Bill C-5.
