This week, the federal government introduced the Building Canada Strong Act (Bill C‑39), aimed at speeding up infrastructure and major project approvals across the country. Beyond the one-year headline, the legislation contains several changes that warrant close attention from project proponents, and other interested parties.
Federal reviews get a one-year deadline.
Once a proponent submits a comprehensive application with all required information and studies, federal departments have 12 months to make a decision.
One year is a target, not a guarantee.
Extensions and suspensions still exist. If a decision isn’t issued within 365 days, the Minister must publicly explain why and set a new timeline.
A new coordinator oversees the whole process.
The President of the Impact Assessment Agency becomes the Federal Review Coordinator, tasked with keeping departments working in parallel instead of in sequence, and maintaining a public dashboard so proponents and the public can track project timelines.
Energy and nuclear projects get dedicated pathways.
The Canada Energy Regulator would lead assessments for pipelines, certain power lines and offshore renewable energy projects, while the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission would continue to lead assessments for nuclear and uranium projects. The goal is to reduce overlap between impact assessment and regulatory processes.
Some regions could receive an even more streamlined approach.
Bill C‑39 introduces “Regions of National Interest.” Following a regional assessment, certain types of projects that meet established criteria could benefit from federal authorization decisions made at the regional level, rather than repeating the same analysis project by project.
Indigenous consultation would be coordinated, not shortened.
Bill C‑39 would coordinate Crown consultation alongside impact assessments and federal permitting, with the goal of reducing overlapping consultation processes. The bill does not remove the Crown’s Duty to Consult or existing Aboriginal and treaty rights, and timelines can still be extended where additional consultation is required.
Fish habitat offsetting could become more flexible.
Changes to the Fisheries Act would expand the use of habitat banking, including allowing credits to be transferred to third parties, and create authority for regulations that could allow proponents to pay into the Environmental Damages Fund to offset certain impacts.
Bill C‑39 is about making federal approvals more predictable.
Instead of projects moving through multiple federal processes with uncertain timelines, the government wants reviews coordinated around a one-year target. The real test will be whether that one-year timeline can be consistently met once projects enter the new system.