On May 1, 2025, the Government introduced Bill 15, the Infrastructure Projects Act to accelerate permitting/approvals of infrastructure and other priority projects. The Bill also “… puts into statute the powers, duties and responsibilities of the Ministry of Infrastructure,” which includes: 

• “Policy development; 
• Project planning and prioritization; 
• Land acquisition; and  
• Project delivery powers.” 

The Legislation also includes several “Acceleration tools” to speed up critical projects, including: 

• Prioritized provincial permitting in which a “…  project could be brought to the front 

of the line, and permit applications prioritized for review.” 

• Establishing a Qualified Professional (QP) reliance framework that would allow QPs to “… be able to certify compliance within government standards on some permits …;” 
• Expedited Environmental Assessments and “… allowing an Environmental Assessment 

Certificate to trigger low-risk provincial permits to be automatically issued;” 

• Allowing municipalities to “… request that the province waive or modify provincial planning requirements for alignment with Official Community Plans and Regional Growth Strategies for designated projects;” and  
• “Where a local government process is creating a lengthy or unnecessary delay on a project, the Province will be able to initiate a three-step process to work with a local government to resolve the issue: 

1. Consultation with the local government; 
2. Seek written agreement with the local government, which could include creating a mutually agreed upon alternate authorization; and  
3. If no resolution is reached, the Minister of Infrastructure can intervene to develop measures to address delays for the designated project.” 

The acceleration tools would apply to two types of projects: 

• Category 1 projects, which include all Ministry of Infrastructure projects and may include those in which other ministries are the lead; 
• Category 2 projects, would be those that are “…  delivered by other partners, such as crown agencies, local governments, First Nations and private proponents.”  

The Category 2 projects would need to be designated as “provincially significant” by an Order in Council “On a ‘project-by-project’ and ‘tool-by-tool’ basis…”. The criteria for what would be “provincially significant” will be released in the coming weeks. However, in the Government’s news release, they state “… whether a project significantly contributes to … housing,” is factor that is under consideration. Category 2 projects would also “… be required to uphold government's commitment to the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act.”  

For more information, please see the technical briefing presentation on Bill 15.  

On a related note, on April 30th, the Government also announced that it is streamlining the permitting of renewable energy projects through Bill 14, the Renewable Energy Projects (Streamlined Permitting) Act.