Legislative changes needed to achieve government’s two-year approval goal for projects

Prime Minister Mark Carney has promised to “make Canada the world’s leading energy superpower” by fast-tracking major resource and infrastructure projects across the country and cutting the approval process down to only two years.

In an interview with The Globe and Mail, partner Michael Fortier said this ambitious plan will have to come with some fundamental legislative changes.

“The practical experience is that nobody’s getting through it currently even in four or five years. So, the idea that you just shorten the time frames and tell everyone, ‘good luck,’ … isn’t likely to be successful here,” he said.

While policy changes will offer the greatest chance of success in achieving the government’s two-year approval goal, there are other opportunities to speed up approvals, Michael said. This includes narrowing the review focus of the Impact Assessment Agency (the governing body responsible for conducting environmental assessments for major projects), involving participants sooner in the review process, and implementing an overall time limit, rather than assigning time limits for each phase of the review process.

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