QUESTION PERIOD — Ministry of Internal Trade
Building Canada Act
February 24, 2026
Thank you for being here, Minister LeBlanc. It is great to see you in such good form. Thank you for being such a good promoter of New Brunswick products, especially those coming from my hometown, which are packaged in green boxes. Thank you for doing that.
In considering the Building Canada Act, does the designation “projects of national interest” apply only to specific projects, or does it apply to infrastructure that supports getting products from the project to market? For example, is increasing supply chain connectivity for a mine via service or rail corridors to ports eligible for inclusion as a component of such a project? Conversely, if a project under the Building Canada Act is taking place at a port and additional infrastructure is required outside the port to allow for the fluidity of cargo to be maximized, would that type of essential supporting infrastructure be eligible as a component of the project?
Senator Quinn, thank you for the question. I hope and believe your great City of Saint John will be a beneficiary of our investment in improving trade infrastructure. Port Saint John, as you know very well, is a source of great interest for our government and for the Government of New Brunswick. I do believe that improving trade infrastructure, including Port Saint John, among others — but particularly the one that you know well — will very much be part of the work that we’ll do over the next number of months.
Regarding your specific question in terms of designating a project, my advice or the interpretation that I have received from Justice officials and from the Major Projects Office is that if the order-in-council process makes a designation, it will be for a single project with a specific proponent, as set out in the Building Canada Act.
I’m happy to go back and work with the Major Projects Office, but I believe that our interpretation of a designation is for the project itself. If you use enabling or adjacent infrastructure, that would not properly be subject to the initial designation. That is the information I have, but I’m happy to confirm.
I cede the balance of my time to Senator Gignac.
