"Environmental and civil society groups react: Bill C-5 becomes law, setting a dangerous precedent", 27 June 2025

Environmental and civil society groups condemn Parliament’s reckless passage of Bill C-5’s controversial Building Canada Act. The Act erodes democratic principles, runs roughshod over Indigenous rights, shuts Canadians out of decisions that could affect them, and puts the environment at risk. 

Bill C-5 sets a dangerous precedent. It gives sweeping and potentially unconstitutional powers to the federal Cabinet to bypass environmental laws and legal safeguards. The Bill allows decisions to be made about “national interest” projects with little public participation, without robust environmental impact assessments, and without the free, prior and informed consent of Indigenous Peoples.

The speed at which the government has forced this Bill through Parliament left inadequate time for careful review, and led to significant backlash from Indigenous communities and organizations, environmental organizations, and the public...

Amendments made in the House of Commons introduced requirements for greater transparency... Bill C-5 and its implementation could result in unconstitutional actions and outcomes, undermine democratic principles, and facilitate executive overreach by threatening the separation of powers...

The federal government needs to take action to deliver projects that will lead Canada to a sustainable, resilient, fair, and climate safe future...

Our organizations will remain vigilant and speak up loud and clear—at the mandatory reviews by the Parliamentary Review Committee and beyond—to ensure the government does not misuse this Act to the detriment of people and the environment...

Isabel McMurray, National Policy Analyst, Climate Action Network Canada:

“Bill C-5 grants sweeping powers to Cabinet, ignores democratic principles of public participation, risks severe environmental harms, and tramples on the rights of Indigenous Peoples...[It]...risks locking Canada into path dependency on unsustainable extractive industries rather than urging Canada forward into the energy transition...”...