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Canada’s unions are not simply opposing investment or new projects. The clash is over how quickly the Carney government wants to reshape the economy—and whether workers will have meaningful influence, protected bargaining rights and secure, union-quality jobs as that happens. The government says faster project development and fewer internal trade barriers can strengthen Canada and support better-paying work; critics including CUPE, the Canadian Labour Congress and United Steelworkers say the approach risks putting speed and executive action ahead of workers’ rights and voice.
What Carney’s economic overhaul changes
The agenda combines efforts to make Canada’s internal market work more smoothly with plans to build major projects, support strategic industries and reduce vulnerability to trade shocks. The government presents these measures as parts of a single economic-resilience strategy: remove barriers, attract investment and help workers and businesses adjust.
Bill C-5 and the internal market
In March 2025, Mark Carney described a plan to build “one strong Canadian economy” by unlocking projects and removing barriers. The federal government committed to legislation addressing federal barriers to interprovincial trade and labour mobility. The One Canadian Economy Act, Bill C-5, received royal assent on June 26, 2025. It enacted the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act and the Building Canada Act.
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Industrial policy, projects and workforce planning
A September 2025 strategic-industry package added a Buy Canadian Policy, business financing and tariff-response measures. It also established a Major Projects Office and set out plans for a Trade Diversification Strategy and Build Canada Homes. The government’s accompanying backgrounder described a goal of forming three to five Workforce Alliances with partners such as unions and industry groups to address labour-market challenges and coordinate skills investment. That figure is a stated goal, not evidence that three to five alliances have been formed.
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Why unions object to the government’s approach
The criticism is not uniform across organized labour, and union statements should not be treated as a consensus among all Canadian unions. The sharper objections in the available statements concern collective bargaining, workers’ influence over policy and whether project powers could weaken other rights.
Collective bargaining and section 107
In September 2025, the Canadian Labour Congress characterized repeated federal interventions under section 107 of the Canada Labour Code in labour disputes as interference with collective bargaining. CUPE’s winter 2026 publication makes a related argument that the government is not listening adequately to workers. It points to the Air Canada flight-attendant dispute, in which, CUPE says, the government used section 107 to end a strike. These are the organizations’ criticisms of the government’s actions, not independent findings about their effects.
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Fast-tracking and rights
United Steelworkers argued that Bill C-5 creates the possibility of overriding labour and Indigenous rights. The union urged the federal government to use industrial and trade policy to protect jobs, support local production and ensure public investment creates good union jobs at home. That is a union’s warning about the law’s implications; it is not a legal determination that the law has overridden those rights.
The disagreement is therefore not simply about whether projects should be built. It is about who sets the conditions for that development, whether workers have a real voice in decisions and how the state balances speed with collective bargaining and other rights.
What the government says workers stand to gain
The government argues that removing internal barriers and financing major infrastructure projects can better integrate the economy, support higher-paying jobs and help offset the effects of U.S. tariffs. Its policy documents also describe ways public investment could include worker protections rather than treating them as separate from economic development.
Stated worker-protection tools
The government’s 2026–2030 Sustainable Jobs Action Plan names community-benefit agreements, prevailing-wage requirements, unionized-labour provisions and Buy Canadian policies as tools intended to help workers share in the benefits of public investment. These commitments show that the official policy framework contemplates union participation and job-quality measures. They do not by themselves establish how consistently those measures will be applied or what outcomes they will produce.
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- Conductor
- Pages: 44
- Instrumentation: Instrumental Methods
- Instrumentation: Conductor
- Voicing: SCORE
Funding and recruitment figures
- Strategic Response Fund: Employment and Social Development Canada’s 2026 Sustainable Jobs Action Plan assigns $5 billion over six years starting in 2025–26 to the fund for large-scale projects intended to build resilience in industries affected by trade disruption.
- Budget 2025 supports: The Department of Finance Canada said in 2025 that more than $25 billion in supports had been announced for workers and businesses affected by economic disruption. It projected an accrual-basis cost of more than $12 billion over five years starting in 2025–26. The announced support total and the projected cost are different measures and should not be conflated.
- Skilled-trades recruitment: In 2026, the Prime Minister of Canada announced Team Canada Strong, a nationwide plan with a target of recruiting up to 100,000 skilled-trades workers. The plan includes expanding the Union Training and Innovation Program for union-run training centres. The figure is a target, not a completed recruitment result.
Where the conflict is sharpest
| Issue | Government’s stated approach | Union criticism or demand |
|---|---|---|
| Project speed and investment | Remove barriers and move major projects forward to strengthen economic integration and resilience. | Fast-tracking should not sideline workers’ rights or leave labour without meaningful influence. |
| Worker voice and bargaining | Policy documents contemplate union partnerships, including Workforce Alliances. | The Canadian Labour Congress and CUPE have criticized the government’s use of section 107 in labour disputes as interference with collective bargaining. |
| Job quality | The Sustainable Jobs Action Plan identifies prevailing wages, community-benefit agreements and unionized-labour provisions as tools for sharing the benefits of investment. | United Steelworkers calls for public investment to create good union jobs at home and for trade and industrial policy to protect jobs and local production. |
| Indigenous rights | The government’s stated case emphasizes removing barriers and advancing projects. | United Steelworkers warns that Bill C-5 could make it possible to override Indigenous as well as labour rights; that warning is not a ruling that an override has occurred. |
What is settled—and what remains unclear
Bill C-5 became law on June 26, 2025, and enacted legislation on interprovincial trade and labour mobility and major projects. Government plans also explicitly contemplate union involvement and job-quality measures. Those facts coexist with labour organizations’ objections to the government’s bargaining interventions and their concerns about the implications of fast-tracking.
The sources cited here do not establish the current legislative status of separate reported proposals affecting strike intervention or essential-service designations. The official parliamentary result confirming Bill C-5’s enactment does not settle the status of those distinct proposals. Nor do the available statements measure public opinion or establish a single position shared by Canada’s unions.
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- 1st Trumpet
- Pages: 28
- Instrumentation: Instrumental Methods
- Instrumentation: Trumpet
What to watch next
- Whether planned Workforce Alliances are formed with unions and how much influence they have over skills and investment decisions.
- Whether public projects apply the plan’s stated tools—such as prevailing wages, community-benefit agreements and unionized-labour provisions—in practice.
- How the federal government handles future labour disputes involving section 107, and whether bargaining parties retain room to reach agreements.
- Whether recruitment and funding targets translate into completed training, jobs and durable benefits for workers and affected communities.
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