Rebooting Canada's backbone: Trump's tariffs put megaprojects back in spotlight

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For the archetypal clip successful the lives of galore Canadians, the thought of large-scale, nation-building infrastructure is backmost successful the spotlight.

Not since the completion of the Trans-Canada Highway successful 1971 have so galore politicians, experts and mean Canadians been talking up large projects — everything from an east-west "energy corridor" to larboard expansions and obstruction upgrades — insisting the state needs to build, and physique fast.

A large portion of this urgency comes from shifting geopolitics and economical uncertainty tied to Canada's reliance connected the United States. President Donald Trump's tariffs and "51st state" rhetoric have driven location the request for alternate commercialized routes and caller markets.

Federal leaders, premiers and manufacture insiders are present looking astatine ways to fast-track projects that erstwhile languished successful governmental purgatory, each successful hopes of making Canada much self-reliant and resilient.

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But to genuinely physique again successful ways that would propel the country's GDP, proponents accidental Canada needs to look beyond determination projects — beyond adjacent the precocious launched $3.9-billion improvement program for a high-speed obstruction linking Toronto to Quebec City.

"It's a bully start. Personally, I would similar to spot immoderate much worldly extracurricular of that Toronto-Windsor corridor. A batch of cities present don't adjacent person autobus work anymore," said Kent Fellows, prof of economics astatine the University of Calgary.

Think of megaprojects connected the standard of the Canadian Pacific Railway oregon Highway 1.

For decades, Fellows says, the state has relied connected the backstage assemblage to physique caller infrastructure. But successful caller years, the risks and costs person ballooned to the constituent wherever fewer companies, nary substance however large, are consenting to carnivore them. 

"We've surely seen that connected the pipeline front, but we're seeing it connected different fronts," Fellows said. "Maybe it's clip to rethink that strategy."

If the extremity is to physique large and physique accelerated successful effect to Trump, Canada's caller way grounds isn't encouraging. From the Northern Gateway and Energy East pipelines to aggregate projected LNG terminals successful British Columbia and Nova Scotia, arsenic good arsenic airy obstruction and metro projects successful Montreal, Surrey, B.C., and Hamilton, Ont., plentifulness of high-profile projects person been abandoned, cancelled oregon stalled.

Even immoderate of the smaller standard proposals related to renewables, specified arsenic a graphite excavation successful occidental Quebec oregon Uranium prospecting successful eastbound Ontario, look fierce opposition. 

Industries person pointed to bureaucracy, NIMBYism and shifting regulatory frameworks arsenic hurdles driving distant investment. Collectively, they've created what 1 adept calls "infinite" veto points to onslaught down a task — astatine assemblage levels, crossed provincial lines and successful the courts.

"We've gone from 1 extreme, wherever astir nary 1 could accidental no, to the other extreme, wherever it's astir intolerable to get a bully task built," said Marc Dunkelman, writer of Why Nothing Works.

Though his probe focuses mostly connected the United States, immoderate of the cases he's looked astatine impact Canada arsenic well, with conclusions applicable to some countries. 

Dunkelman envisions a much functional system.

"Everyone should person a voice, but nary 1 should ever veto," helium said.

Many are present pointing to Trump's threats arsenic a turning constituent for Canada. 

"Maybe this is our wake-up telephone … this is the extremity of our vacation from history," erstwhile Alberta premier and national furniture curate Jason Kenney told CBC's West of Centre successful February after Canadians started booing the American anthem during hockey games. 

"It's clip for us, arsenic a country, to enactment connected our big-boy pants. It's clip for america to halt talking astir things similar productivity and competitiveness and really damn good bash it."

Reviving the 'corridor' concept

One thought making the rounds is an east-west "energy corridor" — erstwhile cardinal to erstwhile Conservative person Andrew Scheer's 2019 predetermination campaign.

Pierre Poilievre, too, has been making the lawsuit for specified a right-of-way since earlier Conservatives chose him to pb the party.

More recently, Liberal Party enactment campaigner Frank Baylis referenced his connection to physique 2 pipelines arsenic "corridors" to transport Alberta's earthy state to Europe and Asia.

The broader conception of an infrastructure corridor has been astir since the 1970s. Researchers astatine the University of Calgary's School of Public Policy gave it a superior boost successful 2016 and 2018, bringing unneurotic experts crossed legal, socio-economic, biology and regulatory disciplines to suggest a "Northern Corridor" spanning Canada's 3 coasts. 

The halfway thought was to acceptable speech abstraction for highways, obstruction lines, powerfulness transmission and pipelines — fundamentally immoderate infrastructure Canada mightiness request to necktie the state together.

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"We are the largest G7 state successful presumption of onshore wide and the smallest successful presumption of population, truthful moving worldly astir our state and moving worldly internationally is truly important for us, but it's thing we truly haven't kept up connected successful presumption of infrastructure spend," said Fellows, who led the corridor research.

A 2024 Statistics Canada study recovered astir fractional of businesses surveyed cited proscription costs oregon sheer region arsenic the main barriers to interprovincial trade.

Zach Parston, who leads the major-project advisory successful the Prairie portion for KPMG Canada and has consulted for some authorities and manufacture connected projects specified arsenic ports and LNG infrastructure, is pushing to revive the corridor concept. 

He describes it arsenic a web of ditches oregon tunnels, 100 to 500 metres wide, stretching from seashore to seashore to seashore — a "utility agnostic" program that could service the needs of contiguous and tomorrow.

"I deliberation there's an contiguous accidental to look astatine oil, to look astatine powerfulness transmission crossed the country," Parston told West of Centre. 

"But past it offers the imaginable for telecommunications, successful presumption of fibre optics, and others potentially, [like] sequestering c from different parts of Canada."

'Pre-approved' concern zones

Along with the corridor idea, Parston sees respective different captious fronts wherever Canada indispensable "build big," including the request to acceptable up what helium calls "pre-approved" concern zones.

"If you deliberation of the inferior corridor arsenic the backbone, these go appendages that link to it," Parston said connected the podcast.

He cited the Alberta Industrial Heartland, northeast of Edmonton, arsenic a bully template for pre-establishing what tin oregon can't beryllium built successful a clustered area.

In these zones, biology and assemblage consultations hap up front, truthful erstwhile companies bash apply, approvals tin beryllium streamlined. The idea, Parston says, is to chopped reddish portion and springiness investors much certainty.

Modernizing ports — including the Arctic

Experts pass that nary of these large builds volition wage disconnected unless Canada modernizes its ports.

After all, each the worldly we nutrient — from vigor to lumber to car parts — each person to spell elsewhere if not southbound to the United States. And with immoderate alternate marketplace you pick, from Asia to Europe, there's a ample assemblage of h2o sloshing betwixt us.

Addressing gridlock astatine the country's largest larboard successful Vancouver has go a pressing concern, with enlargement hampered by sky-high onshore prices successful the Lower Mainland. Fellows spot a solution successful upgrading existing ports specified arsenic Prince Rupert connected the West Coast, arsenic good arsenic Halifax and Montreal successful the East.

"You privation to bring successful a afloat instrumentality and nonstop retired a afloat instrumentality — you don't privation to beryllium moving those containers bare anyplace successful the country, if you tin debar it," Fellows said astir the request to boost capableness successful each the large ports.

At immoderate point, helium says, Canada mightiness besides privation to look north.

Churchill successful bluish Manitoba remains Canada's lone Arctic deepwater port, and it's been acold little progressive since the Harper authorities dismantled the Canadian Wheat Board. 

"There's been immoderate treatment of trying to usage it arsenic an export larboard for energy," Fellows said. "I'm not definite that works retired rather arsenic good conscionable due to the fact that of the carnal location, and due to the fact that of the seasonality of the port. But if idiosyncratic tin fig that out, that's perchance an enactment arsenic well."

For Parston, the North — which includes the Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut — is cardinal to Canada's future. It's packed with captious minerals similar uncommon world elements, cobalt, nickel, copper and tungsten, which are important for emerging technologies specified arsenic EV batteries, renewable vigor systems and precocious electronics.

"It's captious for our economy, our economical information and successful the aboriginal of what Canada has to connection related to captious minerals and others," Parston said. "But besides … what an accidental to enactment a stamp connected Arctic sovereignty, right?"

Both Poilievre and presumed Liberal enactment front-runner Mark Carney person stressed the request to physique subject bases successful the North. Poilievre made a constituent past period of visiting Iqaluit, Nunavut, portion Carney has suggested aboriginal Canadian Forces bases could beryllium built successful Iqaluit and Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T.

What astir NIMBYism, biology and Indigenous concerns?

All these big, nation-building ideas inevitably collide with a world that writer Dunkelman describes arsenic a melodramatic taste displacement successful however ample projects get approved.

In the mid-20th century, helium points out, the "establishment" — often "older achromatic men successful positions of power" — enjoyed wide nationalist trust. They had wide discretion to determine wherever highways would go, which neighbourhoods would look demolition, and however farmland oregon forests mightiness beryllium repurposed.

But scandals, biology disasters and societal movements of the 1960s and '70s eroded religion successful large institutions, forcing governments to enforce much checks and balances. 

"The cohort of alteration — the boomers — were present of property to ballot and enactment successful nationalist life," Dunkelman explained. "And they were by quality much skeptical and cynical astir nationalist authority."

That brought caller nationalist reviews, biology interaction assessments and protective laws. Dunkelman says the alteration empowered communities and safeguarded ecosystems, portion besides requiring leaders to see costs erstwhile ignored.

Over time, however, helium says much "stakeholders" kept joining the process.

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"When everyone has a voice, you get a cacophony," Dunkelman said. "And it's astir intolerable to marque a decision, peculiarly if each of you — each of the voices — person a veto."

In Canada, the Crown's troubled past with Indigenous peoples has sown generations of distrust, adding rights and complications yet to beryllium afloat reconciled. 

One solution, according to erstwhile premier Kenney, is to crook "challenges" into incentives — specified arsenic giving First Nations a involvement successful assets projects.

"Ten years ago, if we were talking astir massively expanding our assets exports, we would person said there's large Indigenous challenges," Kenney said. "But I deliberation broadly, surely successful Western Canada, First Nations overwhelmingly person travel connected committee arsenic partners successful liable assets development."

Challenges bash remain, however, particularly erstwhile it comes to the differing sentiments betwixt elected leaders and hereditary chiefs successful B.C. Both Fellows and Parston hold that fast-tracking caller projects shouldn't mean skipping implicit Indigenous oregon biology consultations.

"When radical accidental chopped reddish tape, there's the mode to bash that responsibly and there's a mode to bash that irresponsibly," Fellows said. "I deliberation it's truly captious not to propulsion retired the bully with the bad."

Hundreds of billions of dollars

Estimates vary, but there's small uncertainty the outgo of large-scale, pan-Canadian infrastructure would beryllium successful the hundreds of billions of dollars — acold much than a azygous pipeline oregon high-speed obstruction link.

For comparison, the terms tag for the projected obstruction enactment betwixt Toronto and Quebec City, which critics accidental isn't ambitious enough, is pegged astatine $80 billion.

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Fellows says fewer companies could spend specified eye-watering sums, leaving the national authorities arsenic a apt backer oregon partner.

"The benefits are precise diffused," helium said. "There are a batch of benefits crossed a batch of the economy, but if we hold for a backstage assemblage to effort to bash that — the gross watercourse has to marque consciousness for them to walk that money."

He points to the Canadian Pacific Railway arsenic an illustration of large infrastructure that continues to wage dividends for sectors from manufacturing to agriculture, much than a period later.

The question is whether Canadians — and their governmental leaders — are consenting to perpetrate the indispensable billions today, successful bid to reap the afloat payoff time (or overmuch later).

Cost overruns aside, the governmental risks are conscionable arsenic real. After all, scandals surrounding Canadian Pacific's improvement helped bring down 2 governments successful the 19th century.

And astir a decennary aft the Trudeau authorities approved, past bought, the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, the Liberals person yet to sway galore voters successful the West.

But Fellows says this clip mightiness beryllium different.

"I deliberation this benignant of falls into the portfolio of 'never fto a bully situation spell to waste,'" Fellows said. "I deliberation possibly now, with the commercialized narration with the U.S., it's go much of a priority.

"Twelve months ago, if you talked to idiosyncratic successful authorities oregon argumentation astir this, they'd go, 'Yeah, it's a bully idea,' and that would beryllium the extremity of the conversation. But I deliberation present we're really seeing nationalist statements connected this."

With files from Robson Fletcher