The Need for Speed: BC’s Permit Streamlining Legislation

With the need for faster project approvals, "streamlined permitting" has become a new focus for Canadian jurisdictions. In Ontario, it has led to the introduction of Bill 5, Protect Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act, 2025 (“Bill 5”), which has been discussed in our previous blog posts here and here. The federal government has also introduced streamlining legislation through Bill C-5, An Act to enact the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act and the Building Canada Act (“Bill C-5”), in order to fast-track national projects.

In British Columbia (“BC”), the desire for greater speed in permitting projects has led to the introduction of two new pieces of legislation. On May 29, 2025, Bill 14: Renewable Energy Projects (Streamlined Permitting) Act (“Bill 14”) and Bill 15: Infrastructure Projects Act (“Bill 15”) received royal assent, signalling a significant shift in BC’s approach to approving renewable energy, transmission line and key provincial infrastructure and critical mineral projects.

An overview of Bill 14 and Bill C-5 will each be the subject of separate blog posts. In this blog post, we provide a brief overview of Bill 15, highlighting how projects are designated under this new regime and the streamlining processes which are made available through those designations.

What is the purpose of Bill 15?

Bill 15 is intended to hasten the delivery of provincial infrastructure and other key, provincially significant projects, broadly speaking, by establishing the powers, duties and responsibilities of the new Ministry of Infrastructure and streamlining permitting processes. While Bill 15 sets out several different streamlining processes, many of the details on the implementation of this proposed legislation will be articulated within the regulations enacted under the new Infrastructure Projects Act, which have not yet been developed.

What is an “infrastructure project” under Bill 15?

Under Bill 15, “infrastructure projects” are divided into category 1 and category 2 projects, which will be designated through regulation. Apart from providing that an individual project or class of infrastructure projects may be designated as a category 1 project and that a category 2 project must be a “provincially significant infrastructure project”, no criteria for these categories has been included in the legislation. Bill 15 instead provides that the Lieutenant Governor in Council can establish eligibility requirements for these designations. “Infrastructure” is also not defined in Bill 15.

During the second reading of Bill 15, Honourable Bowin Ma stated that category 1 projects will be Ministry of Infrastructure projects and other ministries’ projects which are provincially funded (including public buildings like schools and hospitals), while category 2 projects may be delivered by non-provincial governmental entities (i.e. proponents, First Nations, Crown corporations, local governments or the federal government). She continued to describe the government’s vision for category 2 projects as follows:

Category 2 projects need to create significant economic, social or environmental benefits for people in our province. They must have First Nations support and must also significantly contribute to the priorities of the province, such as public infrastructure, critical mineral supply, food or water security, human health and safety, energy security, recovery from post-disaster events, trade diversification, access to new markets, supply security, replacing U.S. imports, housing or reaching British Columbia's climate goals. The criteria for provincially significant projects will expressly exclude pipeline projects, LNG facilities, low-barrier housing and overdose prevention sites. Projects that are designated as provincially significant would not get access to all the streamlining tools of this act automatically. It would depend on the circumstances on a case-by-case basis.

While these statements give a greater indication of what could be captured by this proposed legislation, nothing will be certain until the government starts introducing regulations under Bill 15.

What streamlining mechanisms have been introduced by Bill 15?

When designating a project, the Lieutenant Governor in Council will set out which streamlining processes under Bill 15 apply to the particular project. These streamlining processes are as follows:

• Reviewable Projects Expedited Permitting Process: For reviewable projects under the Environmental Assessment Act (the “EAA”) which already have received an environmental assessment certificate, the Minister of Infrastructure may impose timelines and other conditions on the issuance of further approvals under other provincial legislation. Bill 15 provides that approvals issued through this mechanism will be final and binding, and not appealable under other the provincial legislation through which they are issued (though they would still be subject to judicial oversight through applications for judicial review).
• Expedited Environmental Assessment Process: Bill 15 amends the EAA to provide that, where directed by regulation, a project that is designated under Bill 15 and is a reviewable project under the EAA may be exempted from some of the environmental assessment process requirements under the EAA and instead undergo an environmental assessment in accordance with this new legislation and its applicable regulations. These regulations may also provide that the environmental assessment must be completed within a specified period of time. Details on how this expedited environmental assessment process would be carried out, including any prescription of consensus-seeking opportunities in relation to participating Indigenous nations (as defined under the EAA), will be provided through regulation.
• Constraint Removal Process: Under Bill 15 a “constraint” is a measure that, unless addressed through the mechanisms in Bill 15, may impede or otherwise interfere with the completion or operations of a designated project. Bill 15 sets out mechanisms for addressing constraints, which may include the Minister of Infrastructure requiring that an approval authority (generally a local government) which has jurisdiction over a “constraint” for a designated project make expeditious decisions in respect of the applicable project, and the imposition of other measures in lieu of such constraints.
• Permitting Prioritization Process: This process requires that specified regulators prioritize a designated project in accordance with permitting prioritization processes, which again will be established by regulations. These regulations will seek to expedite the regulator’s review of a designated project (including through imposing timelines).
• Local Government Streamlining Process: The Lieutenant Governor in Council may, by regulation, make exemptions from or modify requirements in certain municipal legislation. Local governments may request that such exemptions be made.
• Qualified Professional Process: The issuance of a certification from a qualified professional may be provided in lieu of an authorization that would otherwise be required for the designated project under provincial legislation. Details on this process (including in respect of which provincial legislation these certifications may be used, the standards for such certifications and the standards and requirements for qualified professionals) will be provided through regulations. When introducing Bill 15, the government indicated that this process is intended to be used for “lower risk provincial permits”.

As is evident from the above, once introduced, regulations will provide more clarity on how Bill 15 will be implemented, and to which projects it will apply.

Next Steps

To date, the introduction of Bill 15 (and Bill 14) has received mixed reception – optimism in the investment and project development community around more streamlined permitting processes along with criticisms that the bills were not drafted with Indigenous input. Concerns have also been raised by Indigenous groups that that the bills may undermine the rights and interests of Indigenous peoples and the ability for Indigenous groups to meaningfully participate in the review of proposed projects. Bill 5 in Ontario has received similar criticisms and these issues will likely continue to be a significant focus in discussions around the development of regulations.

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If you have any questions about Bill 5 (Ontario), Bill C-5 (Federal Government), Bills 14 & 15 or other streamlined permitting initiatives across Canada, please do not hesitate to reach out to us.