Bill to Update Impact Assessment Law Coming in Spring: Wilkinson

Published on February 1, 2024

Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson says the government will have legislation ready by the spring to fix the constitutional problems the Supreme Court has with the federal Impact Assessment Act. The Liberals passed the act in 2019 to overhaul how major projects are assessed for their environmental and social impacts. In October, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled the law was too broad because it allowed Ottawa to wade into provincial jurisdiction. The new legislation to fix that is part of a plan Mr. Wilkinson is publishing today to speed up the regulatory approval and permitting process for major projects. Canada needs massive investments in the electrical grid and potentially hundreds of new critical mineral mines to meet the growing demand of the clean tech revolution....