Sitting 143 — September 24, 2026

The sitting was dominated by second reading debate on the Building Canada Strong Act, the government's sweeping economic legislation, which Liberals framed as the answer to a rupture in trade with the United States and which the Bloc Québécois and Conservatives attacked from opposite directions — the Bloc for gutting environmental assessment and workers' rights, the Conservatives for adding bureaucracy without delivering a single project. A private member's bill on minors' access to pornography was also debated.

The Building Canada Strong Act, Bill C-39, would modernize federal project review around "one project, one review, one year," move assessments for pipelines and nuclear projects to the Canada Energy Regulator and Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, create a transportation project office and national trade corridors council, allow certain construction before final decisions, and amend the Canada Labour Code, including section 107 and mediation timelines. Liberals, including Kody Blois, Julie Dzerowicz, Taleeb Noormohamed and Greg Fergus, argued it preserves environmental standards and indigenous consultation while ending years of duplication; Dzerowicz insisted the right to strike remains protected. The Bloc's Luc Thériault, Patrick Bonin and Yves Perron opposed it as a permanent, Trump-style transfer of power to the executive that removes the five-year sunset on extraordinary powers, weakens the Impact Assessment Agency and encroaches on Quebec. Conservatives, including Gérard Deltell, Richard Bragdon, Pat Kelly, Melissa Lantsman and Kyle Seeback, said Bill C-5 already promised speed and produced nothing, that 500 projects await approval, and that Bill C-69 and the tanker ban remain; they reserved judgment pending committee study, with Seeback warning the labour changes would be rushed through. Elizabeth May and Jenny Kwan raised "sacrifice zones" and the loss of community safeguards.

Bill S-209, the Protecting Young Persons from Exposure to Pornography Act, would require commercial pornography sites to use approved age verification and create offences and fines. Sponsor Rosemarie Falk cited exposure as young as five and the Privacy Commissioner's endorsement; the Bloc's Andréanne Larouche supported sending it to committee; Liberal Taleeb Noormohamed said the government supports its objectives but prefers its own Bills C-34 and C-36, which would create a digital safety commission; Liberal Robert Morrissey and Conservative Sandra Cobena backed the bill.

Oral Questions were consumed by a diesel price fight. Pierre Poilievre repeatedly pressed the Prime Minister on prices he said were 32 cents a litre above the United States, demanding elimination of diesel taxes and emergency pre-permitting for refining. Mark Carney attributed the spike to the wars in Iran and Ukraine, pointed to provincial taxes, the extended fuel excise suspension and Bill C-38, and promoted Bill C-39 as the way to build refineries. A second theme was affordability: Conservatives read constituent letters about evictions and food banks, while ministers cited the groceries and essentials benefit, school food programs, child care and 23 months of falling rents. Poilievre and the Bloc also challenged Bill C-39's treatment of provincial jurisdiction and environmental law, with Carney denying any takeover.