Carney's major projects bill passed. Now he says 'the real work begins'
Now that Bill C-5 is the law of the land, Prime Minister Mark Carney says "the real work begins" to fast-track major projects. Here's what comes next — and what experts say needs to happen.
Parliament passed the bill before it rose for the summer. The second half of the bill, the Building Canada Act, enables the federal cabinet to pick projects deemed to be in the national interest, approve them upfront and override federal laws, environmental reviews and the permitting process.
Those provisions around major projects face pushback from critics, who warn the bill weakens environmental protections, constitutional rights and democracy itself.
The government hasn't yet announced which projects will be fast-tracked. Sources tell CBC News that ministers are meeting throughout the summer behind closed doors to implement Carney's vision.
WATCH | When will the major projects be named?:
Carney's cabinet to meet to fast-track infrastructure projects: Sources
16 hours ago
Duration 1:56
It will be hearing from "provinces, territories and Indigenous proponents over the summer to solicit projects that meet the criteria of the act," Crown and Indigenous Relations Minister Rebecca Alty said in the Senate before the bill was passed.
Carney has framed C-5 as essential to combat the urgent economic threat posed by U.S. President Donald Trump to Canada's steel, auto and natural resources sectors.
"We are in a crisis," Carney said after the bill cleared the House of Commons with help from the Conservatives. "If you don't think we're in a crisis, go to Sault Ste. Marie. Go to Hamilton. Go to Windsor. Go to any lumber or forestry project. There's more coming."
But depending on who you ask, the urgency to get building has existed long before Trump. They say Carney and his cabinet would do well to keep up the momentum for years to come.
Stuck in the 'slow lane'
"There are a number of failed projects around the country," said Jay Khosla, who has served as senior assistant deputy minister at Natural Resources Canada and the Privy Council Office.
Khosla is now executive director of economic and energy policy at the Public Policy Forum. The think-tank produced a roadmap named Build Big Things, which lays out in stark terms that Canada has fallen behind its peers in GDP per capita growth.
"A major cause of this lagging growth is Canada's bloated regulatory burden," the report notes. "Canada has been mostly content to muddle along in the slow lane."
WATCH | Bill C-5 passes:
Carney's 'nation-building' projects bill passes into law
6 days ago
Duration 4:40
Khosla rattled off numerous construction projects that have been envisioned but not yet proceeded, such as critical mineral mines in Ontario's Ring of Fire, oil and gas production off the coast of Newfoundland and transmission lines that could bring renewable power across the country.
If Carney is serious about following through with this election promise to "build, baby, build," Khosla said cabinet should promptly release its list of projects and dismantle the hurdles proponents face.
He says the prime minister and the country's top civil servants will need to closely watch for fail points in the system, once those projects are named.
"I would be asking for a list that I could put in my vest pocket or a ticker tape on my screen every day," Khosla said.
Making time for Indigenous rights
However, addressing concerns about Indigenous constitutional rights seems to be the present focus of the government, after several First Nations leaders panned how the bill was passed.
In an interview with CBC News, Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak accused Carney of rushing the bill in a month when chiefs were busy addressing wildfires and evacuating their communities.
Woodhouse Nepinak called for better consultation.
"Dialogue happens both ways. Not one way ramming something through," she said.
As the national chief notes, not all Indigenous Peoples oppose resource development.
For instance, one Inuit-owned project is hoping to be deemed in the national interest.
The proponents of the Kivalliq Hydro-Fibre Link want to connect Nunavut's mainland communities to Manitoba's power grid and join the rest of the country in enjoying high-speed fibre-optic internet.
The corporation aims to build a 1,200-kilometre transmission line from Manitoba, linking at least five Nunavut hamlets and mines. Several open-pit gold mines operate in the Kivalliq region. Those mines and their adjacent communities burn diesel for electricity and heat.
"We're ready to go. We've been ready to go for a number of years," said Anne-Raphaëlle Audouin, CEO of the Nukik Corporation.
Carney will be holding summits with Indigenous leaders in Ottawa, starting with First Nations representatives on July 17.
He hinted last month that this will be "the first step in that process" of identifying the priority projects.
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Even if this estimate is only remotely in the ballpark, it would lead to a long list of companies benefiting from the rise of AI. Semiconductor giant Nvidia is often viewed as the face of the AI revolution. It's become the largest public company as a result of insatiable enterprise demand for its Hopper (H100) and successor Blackwell graphics processing units. But an argument can be made that AI-driven data-mining specialist Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ: PLTR) is now Wall Street's favorite AI stock. Since the start of 2023, shares of Palantir have soared by 1,940% and it's become one of the most-influential tech companies, with a market cap of more than $300 billion. But this doesn't mean other influential businesses won't surpass its valuation in the years to come Palantir's ascent to the top of the AI pedestal may be short-lived On one hand, Palantir does offer a sustainable moat. The company's Gotham and Foundry platforms aren't replicable at scale by any other companies, which means Palantir doesn't have to worry about having its clients stolen by other businesses. Further, Gotham is known for landing multiyear government contracts, and Foundry is an enterprise-based subscription model, which suggests the company's operating cash flow is highly predictable. However, Palantir is butting heads with historical headwinds that have a flawless track record of eventually weighing down even the most high-flying companies. For example, every next-big-thing trend for three decades, including the advent of the internet, has endured a bubble-bursting event early in its expansion. Investors frequently overestimate the early innings utility and adoption of game-changing technologies, and artificial intelligence likely isn't an exception. While Palantir's multiyear government contracts and subscriptions would buoy near-term sales, negative investor sentiment would likely weigh on its stock. The other issue for Palantir is its valuation. Whereas megacap companies on the leading edge of next-big-thing trends have historically topped out at price-to-sales (P/S) ratios of 30 to 43 over the last three decades, Palantir's P/S ratio is pushing above 104, as of this writing on July 1. This isn't sustainable and suggests that Palantir's market cap will plunge in the coming years. As Palantir stock (presumably) comes back to Earth, three magnificent growth and/or value stocks will have the opportunity to leapfrog it by 2028. Pfizer: current market cap of $142 billion The first amazing business that's only growing stronger and has all the tools necessary to become a more valuable company than Palantir over the next three years is pharmaceutical behemoth Pfizer (NYSE: PFE). What's odd about Pfizer stock recently hitting a 13-year low is that it's been punished for its own success. With combined sales of Pfizer's COVID-19 drugs plummeting from north of $56 billion in 2022 to $11 billion in 2024, recency bias has weighed down its shares. But if investors widen their lens and look at Pfizer's product portfolio since this decade began, it's a completely different story. When 2020 ended, Pfizer didn't have any sales from its COVID-19 franchise and full-year revenue came in at $41.9 billion. When 2024 came to a close, Pfizer had $11 billion in COVID-19 sales and $63.6 billion in product sales. That's 52% growth in net sales spanning just four years for a mature pharmaceutical company. Pfizer's oncology segment is a more specific reason its valuation can head higher. The $43 billion acquisition of cancer-drug developer Seagen in December 2023 vastly expands Pfizer's cancer-drug pipeline, as well as enhances its pricing power. Management has also previously pointed out that cost synergies from the combination will bolster the company's margins in the years following the deal. With the assumption that cancer screening tools continue to improve and access to medical care expands worldwide, Pfizer should have no trouble delivering for its patient shareholders over the next three years, if not well beyond. PayPal Holdings: current market cap of $73 billion Despite Palantir being worth more than four times as much as fintech giant PayPal Holdings (NASDAQ: PYPL), as of July 1, the latter offers a far more attractive risk-versus-reward profile over the coming three years. Even with competition in the digital payment space picking up, PayPal continues to be in the driver's seat for a technology that offers sustained double-digit growth potential. Developed and emerging markets shifting away from traditional cash payments to digital infrastructures affords PayPal and its peers a seemingly limitless ceiling. With few exceptions, PayPal's key performance indicators have been moving in the right direction since this decade began. Total payment volume (TPV) has surged from a reported $936 billion in 2020 to an annual run rate of $1.67 trillion, based on PayPal's first-quarter TPV. What's more, active customers are considerably more engaged, with the average number of payments over the trailing-12-month period climbing from 40.9 in 2020 to 59.4, as of the end of March 2025. This is a recipe for gross margin expansion. Innovation is another key puzzle piece for PayPal to eventually leapfrog Palantir in the valuation department. The potential to further monetize buy now, pay later solutions, as well as leverage AI to personalize its platforms for users, are just some of the ways innovation can reaccelerate PayPal's organic growth. The company's valuation also provides a launching point for its stock. Whereas Palantir is trading at a nosebleed P/S ratio of 104, PayPal has a forward price-to-earnings ratio of just 13, along with a storied history of blowing past its own conservative expectations. Intuitive Surgical: current market cap of $193 billion The third magnificent stock that can surpass Palantir's market cap by 2028 is robotic-assisted surgical systems developer Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ: ISRG). The beauty of healthcare stocks (this includes Pfizer) is that they're highly defensive. Regardless of what's happening with the U.S. economy and stock market, people still come down with ailments and require medical care. Steady demand for everything from prescription medicine to medical devices and surgical procedures ensures that companies like Intuitive Surgical can deliver predictable growth year after year. On a more company-specific basis, Intuitive Surgical holds the lion's share of the robotic-assisted surgical market. Including the 367 da Vinci systems placed during the first quarter, it's now installed 10,189 systems since this century began. No other surgical device company is remotely close to this figure. What's more, buyers and lessees of da Vinci systems have typically invested a lot of surgical training time and money into these systems. In short, purchasers tend to remain clients for a very long time. But the best thing about Intuitive Surgical is, arguably, its revenue breakdown. Throughout the 2000s, selling its high-priced but mediocre-margin da Vinci surgical system accounted for the bulk of its revenue. Nowadays, selling instruments and accessories with each procedure, along with servicing its systems, accounts for a majority of full-year revenue. These are considerably higher margin categories, which has led to earnings growth (often) outpacing sales growth. Intuitive Surgical should see its market cap climb as the general use case of the da Vinci surgical system is expanded over time. Should you invest $1,000 in Palantir Technologies right now? Before you buy stock in Palantir Technologies, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Palantir Technologies wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $692,914!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $963,866!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor 's total average return is1,049% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to179%for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 30, 2025 Sean Williams has positions in PayPal and Pfizer. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Intuitive Surgical, Nvidia, Palantir Technologies, PayPal, and Pfizer. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2027 $42.50 calls on PayPal and short June 2025 $77.50 calls on PayPal. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
