By Lori Turnbull

June 3, 2025

Canada’s federal system is a political obstacle course for any prime minister. It is filled with many checkpoints, including 13 provinces and territories, hundreds of First Nations governments, and thousands of municipalities (not to mention the court system).

The achievement of functional political harmony that opens the door to meaningful progress and productive collaboration has eluded many a prime minister because, with so many decision points, there is ample opportunity for an emerging consensus to break down.

Prime Minister Mark Carney, however, is running this obstacle course like a champ. He’s making it look easy, to the point where one wonders why other prime ministers were not nearly as adept.

Prime Minister Carney does not lack for ambition. He has set high standards and expectations for himself and his government. He has pledged to create a single national economy and to embark on what he has described as the “largest transformation” of Canada’s economy since the Second World War.

The reality of federal governance in Canada and the constitutional division of powers is that no matter how much of a rock star the prime minister might be, large-scale economic reform is impossible without provincial and territorial engagement and cooperation.

This is where things often get tricky. What benefits one province is sometimes a cost to another. The inability to reconcile divergent provincial interests has overtaken efforts at intergovernmental collaboration numerous times throughout Canadian history. Sometimes, even if a national-level project goes ahead in the end, it can contribute to lasting feelings of resentment and alienation for provinces who were not in agreement. The National Energy Program of the 1980s is perhaps the most obvious example of this.

Prime Minister Carney needs his nation-building projects initiative to work in order to grow the economy, to enhance our independence from the United States, and to keep national unity intact. To this end, he met with the provincial premiers in Saskatoon on Monday to get the ball rolling.

The idea was that premiers would pitch ideas for projects that would have “national significance” and could qualify for an expedited two-year federal approvals process. Though the meeting was a brainstorming exercise, and the actual selection and approval process will take time, Carney and the premiers found agreement on the criteria that projects must meet to qualify for the fast-tracked process. This is an intangible result but a solid and necessary first step.

Intergovernmental relations in the country clearly seem to be on the right footing, which is, as they say, better than the alternative. But we need to be honest: the difficult conversations and choices are still to be had and made.

As far as national unity goes, the meeting was a love-in from the get-go. The only question was whether the mood was going to hold once the conversations started. As she made her way to a reception on the eve of the meeting in Saskatoon, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith told reporters that there was a “spirit of collaboration” in the air. The next morning, Ontario Premier Doug Ford could be heard singing “Love is in the Air” in the corridor.

This all suggested a bounty of good faith that, sure enough, did not dissipate by the end of the meeting. New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt, in the press conference at the end of the day, referenced the “unity” at the table. Premier Ford said it was “an incredible meeting, great communication, great collaboration, and we all walked out of that room united.” Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew echoed Ford’s enthusiasm, saying that the projects on the table would represent a “generational opportunity for some of the poorest communities in our country.” In an apparent reference to the tenure of Justin Trudeau, Premier Ford called it “the best meeting we’ve had in 10 years.”

The meeting was significant in that an agreement on criteria was reached and because intergovernmental relations in the country clearly seem to be on the right footing, which is, as they say, better than the alternative. But we need to be honest: the difficult conversations and choices are still to be had and made.

The inevitable trade-offs, disappointments, and decisions that will create winners and losers are all down the road. The criteria for the fast-tracked approvals process, centered on economic growth, feasibility, Indigenous priorities, and clean growth could have been easily predicted in advance; there were no surprises there and this would not have been a difficult consensus to reach in the abstract. But wait until the criteria are put into practice and some projects are rejected. There are premiers who won’t be happy.

Indigenous leaders are already unhappy. The National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak, has been very vocal in her frustration about being left out of yet another first ministers’ meeting. In a letter to Carney dated May 30th, Woodhouse-Nepinak wrote that the proposed fast-tracking of megaprojects, “suggests a serious threat to First Nations exercise of Treaty rights, inherent rights, title and jurisdiction.”

Between this and Ontario’s Bill 5, which seeks to empower the province to fast-track mining projects, Indigenous leaders are increasingly fearful of being left out of the conversation on the country’s economic future. They will make their voices heard.

Meanwhile, as the premiers and the prime minister find common ground, U.S. President Donald Trump is threatening to double tariffs on steel and aluminum to a staggering 50%. On the one hand, the instability that comes from his unpredictable decisions is one reason why intergovernmental collaboration is so important and should be celebrated. On the other, if our industries continue to be rocked by tariffs no matter what, then federal-provincial harmony won’t count for much.

We are in a new geopolitical world, and it is not yet clear how our government(s) will protect us from external economic threats. The quicker projects can be approved and rolled out, the greater will be both the perception and the reality of economic independence and autonomy.

But the gap between Trump’s tariff damage and the relief that will come from project-based economic growth remains to be seen. The true test for our political leadership will be whether the good faith that we see now can withstand that period of purgatory.

Policy Columnist Lori Turnbull is a professor in the Faculty of Management at Dalhousie University.