Building Faster?

Public expectations for collaboration in the Canadian federation

With a new majority, the federal Liberal government now faces fewer obstacles in passing legislation than it would have in a minority Parliament. Nonetheless, the government’s majority status does not diminish the need to negotiate with its partners in the federation – provincial and territorial governments, and Indigenous governments and communities. The latest Confederation of Tomorrow survey shows that, notwithstanding the urgency attached to the need to build new transportation and energy infrastructure to help increase energy exports, most Canadians continue to prefer that the government take the time it needs to reach agreements, whether with the provinces and territories or Indigenous communities.

There are two notable aspects of this finding. The first is that the current federal government’s apparent popularity as measured in the polls does not translate into a blank cheque from Canadians for it to proceed in the absence of agreements with its provincial or Indigenous partners. The second is the absence, broadly speaking, of a double-standard: on the whole, Canadians are just as likely to insist on the need for the agreement of Indigenous communities as they are the agreement of provinces.

The 2026 study consists of a survey of 5,696 adults, conducted between February 14 and March 28, 2026 (92% of the responses were collected between February 19 and March 7); 91 percent of the responses were collected online. The remaining responses were collected by telephone (both landline and cell phone) from respondents living in the North or on First Nations reserves, or from francophone respondents in New Brunswick.

The survey is conduced on behalf of all the survey partners by the Environics Institute for Survey Research. The fieldwork is managed by Elemental DCI. The online portion of the survey drew respondents from the Leger LEO panel; the telephone interviews were conducted by Elemental DCI.

The Confederation of Tomorrow surveys give voice to Canadians about the major issues shaping the future of the federation and their political communities. They are conducted annually by an association of the country’s leading public policy and socio-economic research organizations:

• The Environics Institute for Survey Research
• Centre of Excellence on the Canadian Federation
• The School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary
• Centre D’Analyse Politique – Constitution et Fédéralisme
• Brian Mulroney Institute of Government
• First Nations Financial Management Board

This project benefits from the financial support of the Research Support Program of the Secrétariat du Québec aux relations canadiennes (SQRC) / Ce projet bénéficie de l’appui financier du Programme d’appui à la recherche du Secrétariat du Québec aux relations canadiennes (SQRC).