New B.C. legislation to speed up public and private projects, says minister

B.C. Infrastructure Minister Bowinn Ma says new legislation will speed up major public and private projects, including mines and other natural resource enterprises.

The government of Premier David Eby has previously promised to speed up permitting to improve the provincial economy after last year's election, then amid tariff and annexation threats from United States President Donald Trump.

Ma says in the legislature that the Infrastructure Projects Act tabled on Thursday will designate projects that are significant to the province and oversee the planning, procurement and delivery of major capital projects.
She says the legislation will give the province additional power to speed up government projects as well as other provincially significant enterprises that provide economic, environmental or social benefits to British Columbia.

Ma says the legislation gives cabinet the power to designate projects as significant on a case-by-case basis, and that they could originate from Crown corporations, local governments, First Nations or the private sector.
The minister says the legislation will speed up permitting through an alternative environmental assessment process and other streamlining tools, promising that none of these will change the quality of assessment or obligations to First Nations under the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.