Canadians favour infrastructure projects over regional or Indigenous objections: Nanos

Construction workers work on the new Pattullo Bridge being built as a replacement for the aging bridge, back right, that opened in 1937, in New Westminster, B.C., on Tuesday, July 8, 2025. (DARRYL DYCK/THE CANADIAN PRESS)

A majority of Canadians support or somewhat support national infrastructure projects, even if there is opposition from provinces, Indigenous peoples or environmental concerns, according to new survey results from Nanos Research, conducted for CTV News.

Seventy per cent of Canadians surveyed support or somewhat support national projects even in the face of potential Indigenous opposition, while more than half — 59 per cent — oppose or somewhat oppose Indigenous Nations having the power to block projects.

“This speaks to a situation where there is political licence, but that does not mean it is the best path forward,” Nik Nanos told CTV News. “There is a whole new appetite to move forward that never really existed to this level because of Donald Trump.”

“I think what it shows is that there is a lack of understanding, writ large across the country, of the role Indigenous people play in the national economy,” said Mark Podlasly of the First Nations Major Projects Coalition (FNMPC).

The FNMPC represents 180 First Nation members across Canada who want to participate in major projects in their territories — as long as their rights and environmental protections are in place, and they can participate meaningfully.

Podlasly says he was not surprised by the survey results.

“People have seen Indigenous people as being roadblocks to projects… There has to be a shift in seeing Indigenous people not as a risk, but as an opportunity to de-risk projects, to ensure that investors will invest in Canada on those projects, and that we can get to market on time,” he told CTV News.

The survey also found 60 per cent support or somewhat support developing Arctic land as an oil and gas route, even if there are environmental concerns.

CTV News reached out to the Assembly of First Nations as well as Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami for comment on the findings, but did not hear back by deadline.

When it comes to regional opposition, the numbers are even higher. Seventy-seven per cent of those surveyed support or somewhat support national infrastructure projects, even if provinces oppose them.

“When you ask people, ‘Do they support infrastructure?’, most people are going to say yes,” said Moshe Lander, an economist at Concordia University.

“But then if you ask them, ‘Are they going to support it if you have to pay higher taxes, or cutbacks in government services,’ I am not sure how strong that support is. That is always the issue, right? How are you going to pay for it?”

Lander says infrastructure across Canada is a complicated picture — economically, politically and financially — that has been neglected “probably for decades,” and needs everything from billions of dollars to addressing a skilled worker shortage in order to fix.

The findings come against the backdrop of a prime minister who has promised to “build, baby build.”

The Liberals were able to pass the Building Canada Act, or Bill C-5, amid criticism that it was too rushed. Mark Carney is aiming to get a Major Projects Office as well as an Indigenous Advisory Council up and running by Labour Day. He concluded three summits with Indigenous groups this summer, listening to concerns over Bill C-5.

The Conservatives, meanwhile, are promising a motion called the Canada Sovereignty Act and are calling for shovels in the ground on a number of major infrastructure projects — including two pipelines — by March 14, the one-year anniversary of Carney taking office.

Methodology: Nanos Research, RDD dual-frame hybrid telephone and online random survey, July 31 to Aug. 6, 2025, n=1034, accurate 3.1 percentage points plus or minus, 19 times out of 20.