Originally published in the Chronicle Herald on Thursday, June 19, 2025.
On Jan. 20, a newly inaugurated Donald Trump shouted a slogan that had become a rallying cry of his campaign: “Drill, baby, drill.”
This mantra represented a promise to the billionaire-backed fossil fuel lobby that supported his campaign, and an open threat to the environmental movement that opposed it. America’s future was oil and gas, and any efforts to reorient the U.S. economy away from that would be stamped out.
Trump’s attack on the environment was expected; his attack on Canadian sovereignty was not.
As Canadians searched for ways to decouple our economy from the U.S., the same fossil fuel lobbyists who helped elect Trump were ready with a familiar answer: Drill, baby, drill.
For these bad actors, the idea of a nation-building project for Canada was synonymous with pipelines. If Canada is nothing more than a gas station for the U.S., then of course the only way to assert our sovereignty is to find new customers (never mind the fact that many of the interests behind those pipelines are U.S. billionaires and Trump supporters).
Canada does need a nation-building project. But instead of another climate-killing, short-sighted pipeline, Canada has a chance to build a national electricity grid in order to create jobs, lower energy costs and unlock the full economic potential of renewable energy across our country.
For Atlantic Canada, in particular, this means building power lines to connect our tremendous wind energy resources to the rest of the country, a project Premier Tim Houston recently dubbed Wind West.
The path forward is clear. The Government of Canada must provide funding to facilitate these projects while working collaboratively with communities along the path of power lines to ensure public buy-in. It also offers an opportunity to pursue economic reconciliation with First Nations across our region.
The recent announcement of a project to build transmission lines connecting Nova Scotia and New Brunswick – dubbed Wasoqonatl, or “keep light on” in the Mi’kmaw language – included confirmation of a partial ownership stake by the Wskijinu’k Mtmo’taqnuow Agency Ltd., an economic development partnership owned by the 13 Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw nations.
This shift in the federal government’s approach to the Wasoqonatl project did not go unnoticed. At the announcement for the project, Glooscap First Nation Chief Sidney Peters remarked on this policy shift: “For too long, Indigenous communities have been left out on the sidelines of major infrastructure projects. That is changing.”
But a few short months later, the federal government seems to be shifting its approach again. Despite objections by the Assembly of First Nations, the government is poised to rush its newly minted omnibus legislation – Bill C-5 – through the Senate of Canada, with little debate or opportunity for amendments.
The bill would allow the government to circumvent its own environmental regulations and frameworks for Indigenous consultation through the Impact Assessment Act in order to build projects that Ottawa deems to be in the national interest. This attempt comes on the heels of concerning comments by the justice minister, Nova Scotia MP Sean Fraser, that rejected the notion that Indigenous peoples hold any “veto” in regard to land and resources matters.
Although the minister apologized for these comments, it is difficult to understand the federal government’s newfound hostility toward the idea of consultation and co-operation with Indigenous nations on projects that benefit all Canadians. This new approach seems torn from the playbook of the fossil fuel lobby, which has loudly called for the repeal of the Impact Assessment Act and has often taken an antagonistic stance toward Indigenous rightsholders.
As currently written, Bill C-5 would give the government unprecedented powers to override Indigenous consultation and environmental safeguards. This authority was not needed to begin building power lines between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and it is not needed to build a national grid across Canada.
A true nation-building project shouldn’t need to hide from proper consultation and necessary checks and balances. However, Bill C-5 and the authority it grants might be useful if the federal government’s idea of nation building comes down to “Drill, baby, drill.”
Nova Scotia Sen. Paul Prosper, a former chief of the Paqtnkek Mi’kmaw Nation and a lawyer with decades of experience in project management, has said he will put forth an amendment to delay parts of Bill C-5 due to concerns about the level of consultation provided for major projects. The government should accept his amendments and work to make changes that prioritize Canada’s ability to build a clean economy in meaningful collaboration with Indigenous peoples.
One thing is certain: To prevent common-sense amendments and ignore legitimate criticisms would be to embrace the politics of the U.S. administration. I think most Canadians would agree that this is a misguided way to assert our independence from Trump.
Thomas Arnason McNeil is a senior energy co-ordinator at the Ecology Action Centre in Halifax.