Major Project Development & Regulatory Excellence

Improving Canada’s review and permitting processes to enable major projects in Canada

Canada has ambitious environmental and economic targets.

To meet these targets, Canada needs to invest $125-140 billion every year until 2050 to build an unprecedented amount of infrastructure.

Simply: we need to build more—and build it faster.

With our current regulatory systems, we won’t be able to achieve this goal.

That’s why we brought together regulatory and policy experts from across the country to examine Canada’s permitting and approvals processes, identify challenges holding us back, and offer both first steps to improve current systems and a vision for a model regulatory system.

Future Unbuilt: Transforming Canada’s Regulatory Systems to Achieve Environmental, Economic, and Indigenous Partnership Goals

Final report from the Task Force on Major Project Development and Regulatory Excellence recommending improvements to Canada’s permitting and approval processes to enable major projects in Canada.

Canadians support responsible and sustainable development. This includes working with Indigenous communities to co-develop economic opportunities and ensure their participation throughout a project’s lifecycle.

We set up our permitting and approval process to safeguard the environment, and to protect community priorities. But they have become complex, unpredictable, and lengthy, preventing responsible and sustainable development.

Consequently, Canada is not seen as a place that can get projects built—and that has a big cost. If we cannot improve the process, our country will likely lose out on important low- or zero-carbon initiatives, strategic investments, tens of thousands of jobs across the country, and opportunities to enable Indigenous partnerships.

About the Task Force

Unlocking our full potential requires Canada to succeed in a highly competitive global economy—and that means we need to be investing in the major infrastructure projects necessary to seize market opportunities and advance Canada’s rapidly approaching emissions reduction targets.

The Task Force on Major Project Development and Regulatory Excellence is a group of project proponents, Indigenous representatives, and regulatory experts focused on developing pragmatic and actionable solutions to improve Canada’s major project approvals and regulatory processes without compromising health, safety, Indigenous, or desirable environmental and social outcomes.

The Task Force released its final report Future Unbuilt: Transforming Canada’s Regulatory Systems to Achieve Environmental, Economic, and Indigenous Partnership Goals in June 2023.

Task Force Members

• Sarah Schwann, Task Force Chair, Vice President External Affairs, Pembina Pipeline Corp.
• Robert Bourne, Task Force Vice Chair, Associate General Counsel, Enbridge
• Cale Runions, Manager of Regulatory Affairs – External Relations, TC Energy
• Dale Friesen, Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs & Chief Government Affairs Officer, ATCO Ltd.
• Dale Swampy, President, National Coalition of Chiefs; Special Advisor, Business Council of Alberta
• Denise Mullen, Director, Environment, Sustainability & Indigenous Relations, Business Council of British Columbia
• Greg Krauss, Regulatory Affairs Lead, Corporate Relations, Shell Canada
• Hal Kvisle, Chair, ARC Resources; Past Chair, Business Council of Alberta
• Ian Anderson, Former CEO of Trans Mountain Corp.
• Ken Faulkner, Director of Government Relations, NOVA Chemicals
• Marla Orenstein, Director of the Natural Resources Centre, Canada West Foundation
• Ron Wallace, Fellow of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute; Former Permanent Member of the National Energy Board

Media Inquiries

For more information on this Task Force or to arrange an interview with a spokesperson, please contact: media@businesscouncilab.com