What are we building?
Lately, the politicians and ruling class seem eager for even more power.
In the name of “nation building”, premiers and the prime minister are legislating bypasses to checks and balances. In BC, the NDP government just pushed through Bill 15.
“Bill 15, the Infrastructure Projects Act, may be blandly named but it has First Nations, local governments, legal experts, environmental advocates and opposition MLAs warning of troubling government overreach”, reports Shannon Waters in The Narwhal.
The bill gives the government the ability to deem any project of “provincial significance” and potentially exempt it from regulatory processes such as environmental assessment. In the media, cabinet ministers used the example of getting hospitals and schools built quickly. Those in opposition to the bill know how it will be used – to force through resource extraction projects.
Similar legislation recently became law in Ontario, part of an effort to gain quick access to minerals in the so-called ‘Ring of Fire.’ At the federal level, the new PM and his Liberal government have introduced the Strong Borders Act. which gives sweeping authority to law enforcement agencies – the same ones currently lacking robust public oversight.
All these examples are apparently necessary to combat the authoritarianism and threats to sovereignty coming from our southern neighbours. Of course, these power grabs did not materialize in the last six months. Clearing the way for investment capital in the name of nation building is as old as the nation itself.
In January 2025, I wrote an article for The Discourse about the failures of BC’s Heritage Conservation Act, the legislation that is supposed to protect First Nations cultural sites across the province. First Nations have long demanded this legislation be updated.
In 2022, the province launched the Heritage Conservation Act (HCA) Transformation Project to reform the act and align it with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP)…However, in his January 2025 mandate letters to cabinet ministers responsible for the act, Premier David Eby makes no mention of the Heritage Conservation Act Transformation Project.
BC’s Bill 15 legislation may allow projects to bypass the protection of cultural heritage — a problem that many hoped an updated Heritage Conservation Act would address.
Carney, Eby, and others say they are committed to addressing the climate emergency, advancing truth and reconciliation, and maintaining our civil liberties. But their legislative priorities give them sweeping powers to build pipelines, destroy sacred sites, and spy on us.
We are being asked to ignore these contradictions in the name of nation building. So what kind of nation are we building?