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Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada weigh in on Bill C-39

An open letter from 56 Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada concerning environmental stewardship and the proposed Building Canada Strong Act.

The letter

The Right Honourable Mark Carney
Prime Minister of Canada
House of Commons
Ottawa ON, Canada K1A 0A6
The Honourable Steven MacKinnon
Minister of Transportation and Government House Leader
House of Commons
Ottawa ON, Canada K1A 0A6
The Honourable James Maloney, Chair
Legislative Committee on Bill C-39
House of Commons
Ottawa ON, Canada K1A 0A6
The Honourable Fabian Manning, Chair
Special Senate Committee on the Building Canada Strong Act
The Senate of Canada
Ottawa ON, Canada K1A 0A4

RE: Specific deficiencies in Bill C-39 (The “Building Canada Strong Act”) with respect to environmental stewardship

Dear Prime Minister Carney, Minister MacKinnon, and Committee Chairs, 22 October 2026

We write as recognized scientific experts on the environment and biodiversity, all of us Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada, to draw your attention to several clauses of the omnibus Bill C-391 that raise serious concerns about impacts on the environment. We support streamlining project assessments, but the following clauses, if left unamended, risk costly and potentially irreversible harm to Canada’s Natural Heritage and so will fail the stated aim of the law, that of building projects while maintaining strong environmental protections2.

Division 1, cl. 5: This clause allows “enabling activities” to occur prior to any assessment or permitting process without clear limits to the nature of those activities. Early activities done to enable a project, such as site clearing, dredging, and road work, often cause substantial environmental damage. This clause thus allows activities that side-step Canada’s legal and regulatory protections for the environment, without clear limits to the scope of these activities. We recommend Clause 5 be removed from Bill C-39.

Division 7, cl. 189: This amends the Fisheries Act to allow the Minister to authorize that persons may “pay a fee fixed under section 13 to offset the harmful effects of the work, undertaking or activity on fish or fish habitat”. This would be a dramatic weakening in how fish and fish habitat are protected under the Fisheries Act. There is no condition in the draft Bill C-39 ensuring that the offsets counterbalance the damages caused. Offsetting is last on the “mitigation hierarchy” (avoiding, minimizing, mitigating, and then offsetting) to which the Government committed in its Force of Nature Strategy3. Offsetting is last because it often fails to compensate for the harms incurred, with studies showing success only when more habitat is restored than is damaged and then only when the habitat is suitable for the fish harmed4,5. We recommend that Bill C-39 incentivize the first steps in the mitigation hierarchy and legally require context-specific offsetting, financed to fully compensate for the harms caused.

Division 3, cl. 125; Division 4, cl. 159; Division 5, cl. 167; Division 6, cl. 177; and Division 7, cl. 183: These clauses amend Acts protecting the environment (Canadian Energy Regulator Act, Canadian Navigable Waters Act, Canadian Environmental Protection Act, Species at Risk Act and Fisheries Act) to include a new requirement that the Agency or relevant Minister “must take into account the technical, economic and practical feasibility” of conditions attached to the granting of a permit or an authorization for a project. Given that the most expensive conditions are likely to be imposed on the projects causing the most environmental damage, removing conditions that are deemed “too costly” will weaken safeguards for the environment exactly where they are most needed. We consider the careful wording in the original Acts to be sufficient and recommend that these amendments be dropped from Bill C-39.

Division 2, cls. 95–103: These clauses will erode Canada’s environmental checks and balances by extending the Building Canada Act [BCA2025] (S.C. 2025, c. 2, s. 4) in two ways: removing the five-year timeline of its applicability and allowing the designation of “regions of national interest,” the size and nature of which are unspecified. The BCA2025 pre-approves projects even if the proposed projects contravene Canada’s federal environmental laws (including the Species at Risk Act, Fisheries Act and the Canadian Environmental Protection Act) and fails to ensure that environmental damage can or will be prevented or reversed. Streamlined approval through BCA2025 also hamstrings negotiations with project proponents by eliminating approval as an incentive to protect the environment. Bill C-39 amends BCA2025 so that this or any future Government could designate potentially immense regions of Canada, as well as projects, to be of “national interest” without any mandated environmental protection at the federal level. We recommend that the 5-year timeline on the provisions in the BCA2025 be maintained and that the scope of “regions of national interest” be fully specified in Bill C-39.

Division 1, cl. 2; Division 3, cl. 118: These clauses commit to a one-year timeline for Impact Assessments and associated permits after a project proponent’s application is submitted. We appreciate that the main goal of Bill C-39 is to increase efficiency and spur economic activity, but we are worried that this timeline may not be sufficient to assess complex projects with large environmental impacts. We recommend that Bill C-39 clarify that additional time may be required to evaluate less harmful alternatives and impacts not yet studied by the proponents.

Division 1, cl. 53; Division 2, cls. 100, 101; Division 4, cl. 160: These clauses empower a single Minister to dismiss conditions for permits and Impact Assessments. This is an extraordinary power, with potentially far-reaching consequences for the environment. We recommend that Bill C-39 remove this concentration of power.

We fully agree with the goal of the Government to “create the conditions needed for investment in projects that support jobs and economic growth…while protecting the environment”2. As written, however, Bill C-39 countermands the environmental protections currently in place in Canadian law, laws written to avoid irreparable harms to species, ecosystems, natural resources, and human wellbeing and health. We call upon the House and Senate to uphold these laws and to consider our recommendations for the benefit of nature, Canadians, and the rest of the world.

We would be happy to provide further information and expertise as requested.

We remain, sincerely,

Sarah Otto, FRSC, The University of British Columbia (otto@zoology.ubc.ca)

Aaron Fisk, newly elected Fellow of RSC6, University of Windsor

Andrew Gonzalez, FRSC, McGill University

Andrew Hendry, FRSC, McGill University

Aneil Agrawal, newly elected Fellow of RSC6, University of Toronto

Barbara Sherwood Lollar, FRSC, University of Toronto (barbara.sherwoodlollar@utoronto.ca)

Boris Worm, FRSC, Dalhousie University

Catherine Potvin, FRSC, McGill University

Chris M. Wood, FRSC, RSC Romanowski Medal, University of British Columbia

Curtis Suttle, FRSC, The University of British Columbia

Daniel R. Brooks, FRSC, University of Toronto

Daniel Pauly, FRSC, The University of British Columbia

Dolph Schluter, FRSC, The University of British Columbia

Fanie Pelletier, newly elected Fellow of RSC6, Université de Sherbrooke

Irena Creed, FRSC, University of Toronto

Isabelle M. Côté, FRSC, Simon Fraser University

Jeremy T. Kerr, FRSC, FRSB, University of Ottawa (jkerr@uOttawa.ca)

Joerg Bohlmann, FRSC, The University of British Columbia

John M. Fryxell, FRSC, University of Guelph (jfryxell@uoguelph.ca)

John Reynolds, FRSC, Simon Fraser University

John P. Smol, FRSC, Queen’s University (john.smol@queensu.ca)

Julian D. Olden, newly elected Fellow of RSC6, University of Washington

Kenneth L. Denman, FRSC, University of Victoria

Kevin S. McCann, FRSC, University of Guelph

Lawrence M. Dill, FRSC, Simon Fraser University

Loren Rieseberg, FRSC, The University of British Columbia

Marie-Josée Fortin, FRSC, University of Toronto

Mark Lewis, FRSC, University of Victoria

Mark S. Boyce, FRSC, University of Alberta (boyce@ualberta.ca)

Mark Winston, FRSC, Simon Fraser University

Marla B. Sokolowski, FRSC, University of Toronto

Michael Doebeli, FRSC, The University of British Columbia

Michael Whitlock, FRSC, The University of British Columbia

Michel Loreau, FRSC, McGill University

Nicholas K. Dulvy, FRSC, Simon Fraser University

Patricia M. Schulte, FRSC, The University of British Columbia

Paul del Giorgio, FRSC, Université du Québec à Montréal

Peter Abrams, FRSC, University of Toronto

Peter Boag, FRSC, Queen’s University

Peter J. Dillon, FRSC, Trent University

Peter R. Leavitt, FRSC, University of Regina (Peter.Leavitt@uregina.ca)

Pierre Legendre, FRSC, Université de Montréal

Raleigh J. Robertson, FRSC, Queen’s University

Rashid Sumaila, FRSC, The University of British Columbia (r.sumaila@oceans.ubc.ca)

Raymond Ng, FRSC, The University of British Columbia

Sally Aitken, FRSC, The University of British Columbia

Scott Chang, newly elected Fellow of RSC6, University of Alberta

Spencer C. H. Barrett, FRSC, University of Toronto

Steven J. Cooke, FRSC, Carleton University

Terrance P. Snutch, FRSC, The University of British Columbia

Troy Day, FRSC, Queen’s University

Verena Tunnicliffe, OC, FRSC, DSc, University of Victoria

Villy Christensen, FRSC, The University of British Columbia (villy.christensen@ubc.ca)

William Cheung, FRSC, The University of British Columbia

William E. Rees, FRSC, The University of British Columbia

Yves T. Prairie, FRSC, Université du Québec à Montréal

[Email addresses provided for those Fellows who have volunteered to speak about the Bill.]

Cc:

  • The Honourable Julie Dabrusin, Minister of the Environment, Climate Change and Nature
  • The Honourable Joanne Thompson, Minister of Fisheries
  • The Honourable Tim Hodgson, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources
  • The Honourable James Maloney, Chair of the Special Legislative Committee on the Building Canada Strong Act
  • The Honourable Fabian Manning, Chair of the Senate Committee studying the Building Canada Strong Act
  • The Honourable Pierre Poilievre, Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada
  • MP Yves-François Blanchet, Leader of the Bloc Québécois
  • Avi Lewis, Leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada
  • MP Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party of Canada
  • Mona Nemer, C.M. C.Q. FRSC, Chief Science Advisor of Canada

Notes

  1. Bill C-39, draft legislation (PDF)
  2. Cabinet directive
  3. Canada’s Nature Strategy
  4. Quigley et al. 2006 (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-004-0263-y)
  5. Pope et al. 2021 (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-020-01415-0)
  6. Newly elected Fellows will be officially invested on November 13, 2026.