Canada has never been short on ideas and big dreams. We have, more than once, invented what the world thought impossible.

For example, we built a railway that bound a country together and now connects a continent. The Candu reactor program has been exported globally and still operates today. The Canadarm helped make working in space safer and more efficient. Insulin, the pacemaker, IMAX, the snowmobile … we’ve changed how humanity works, plays, survives and explores.

The question now is whether we still believe we can. In recent times, we have starved ambition, thwarted innovation and culled entrepreneurialism. We’ve debated projects to death, acted as though building big things is reckless and tip-toed through mazes of NIMBYism, political correctness, bureaucracy and red tape. What happened to the country that was strong, resilient and fearless?

To thrive now and into the next century, we need more than regulatory tweaks. We need projects of national significance that move

gross domestic product (GDP), diversify the economy, maximize our current advantages and bring the nation together.

That means modern trade corridors to get our goods to market. It means resource strategies for agriculture, energy and

critical minerals . It means certainty in regulatory processes that will give investors the confidence to see Canada as a place of opportunity instead of a high-risk destination for their money.

Western Canada has obvious opportunities: agriculture that feeds the world, energy systems that can deliver both security and transition, and minerals needed for the batteries and technologies of tomorrow. But let’s not mistake them as regional projects. They fuel prosperity from coast to coast.

Whether it’s a copper mine in northern Saskatchewan or British Columbia, a carbon capture pipeline in Alberta or an all-weather road in the Arctic, it all helps support the Canadian economy and increase GDP. They also attract foreign investment dollars.

These are not local priorities; these are Canadian imperatives.

The North, too, has often been treated as distant, too costly or too complicated. Yet it is central to Canada’s future, for sovereignty, for inclusion of northern communities and for long-term growth.

With increased international focus on the Northwest Passage as a waterway and an eye on its untapped resource potential, continued marginalization of the region threatens our claim to the North and also national security. Investment in ports, roads, energy and broadband isn’t optional; it’s the price of being serious about the 21st century.

A century ago, the railway stitched Canada together from east to west. Today, connecting the North could be our generation’s equivalent: a project that secures both prosperity and sovereignty for the future.

Canada does not fail for a lack of priorities; it fails for a lack of a national vision. The Major Projects Office has its place, but no regulatory design can substitute for clarity of purpose.

Without a long-term national strategy, projects are assessed in isolation, as if they exist apart from the broader economic and security picture. The real question is cultural: do we still believe Canada can shape its own destiny? Or are we content to let opportunities pass us by while others act more boldly?

The two-years, one-window approach is not radical; it is the bare minimum for a competitive country. Investors don’t demand perfection; they demand certainty. An approval process that is clear, streamlined and timely signals that Canada knows what it wants and how to deliver.

Our past proves we are capable of boldness. Canada didn’t perfect the Candu reactor by waiting for permission; we built it and shared it with the world. We didn’t invent insulin to let it gather dust; we deployed it globally. We didn’t stop at making Canadarm1; we continued to finesse the design and are now preparing Canadarm3 for deployment on

Gateway , a National Aeronautics and Space Administration-led space station planned for orbiting the moon.

If Canadians could help develop and pilot modern peacekeeping and contribute to the launch of

artificial intelligence , surely we can approve a mine, a pipeline , a port or a transportation corridor in a timeframe that keeps pace with the world.

The current list of initial projects under consideration by the Major Projects Office is an OK start. But we need a national vision and strategy that invests in the North, unlocks Western potential, unleashes Canadian innovation and promotes entrepreneurialism — all with a sense of urgency. This will vault us onto the world stage once again. The only question now is whether we still have the national will.

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