Carney to Table Project Approval Reform Within Weeks, Targeting Two-Year Decisions

Prime Minister Mark Carney is preparing to table fresh legislation in the coming weeks that would force a hard 24-month ceiling on regulatory decisions for major energy and infrastructure projects, in what officials are framing as the most ambitious overhaul of Canada's environmental review architecture in a generation. The bill, expected to land before the summer recess, would expand the reach of last year's national-interest projects law and apply a unified clock to mines, transmission corridors, ports, pipelines, and grid-scale clean energy.

What is being proposed

According to officials briefing reporters this week, the bill will set a maximum two-year window from the moment a project enters federal assessment to a final cabinet decision. Reviews that today routinely stretch to four, five, or even seven years would be reorganised around a single concurrent process rather than the current sequential one, in which environmental, Indigenous consultation, and economic-impact assessments are often staged one after the other.

The legislation is expected to consolidate timelines under a single project office reporting to the Privy Council, with binding deadlines on individual ministries. Where a department fails to deliver its piece on time, the bill is expected to allow the responsible minister to deem the requirement satisfied and continue the clock. That mechanism, officials say, is the heart of the bill's promised acceleration.

The political context

The Carney government secured a parliamentary majority on April 13 and is no longer dependent on opposition support to pass legislation. Until now, legislation of this scale would have required cooperation from one of the opposition parties. With the majority secured, ministers have signalled they are prepared to move on a long list of files that had been parked during the minority government.

The Prime Minister has been candid that he sees the existing federal review process as a structural drag on Canadian competitiveness. In remarks delivered earlier this year, Carney argued that Canada's economy will not absorb the trade shocks now flowing from Washington unless the country also unlocks its own resource and infrastructure capacity. Project approval reform, his office argues, is the necessary supply-side counterpart to any tariff-mitigation strategy.

Why the existing law was insufficient

Last year's national-interest projects law gave cabinet a fast-track lever for projects of singular importance, but its application has been narrow. Only a handful of projects have moved through it, and government officials concede that the broader pipeline of mid-sized projects has continued to languish in older review streams. The new bill is being drafted to cover the wider field rather than reserving acceleration for a small list of marquee projects.

Industry groups have argued for years that timeline uncertainty, more than the substance of any individual approval condition, is what deters capital. A coalition of mining and infrastructure associations submitted joint written input to the government in late April calling for hard time limits, simultaneous review tracks, and an early-stage triage step that would screen out marginal proposals before they consume years of agency staff time.

Indigenous consultation and the constitutional bar

The bill's most sensitive design question is how it preserves the Crown's constitutional duty to consult and accommodate Indigenous rights-holders while compressing the overall timeline. Officials have stressed that consultation will not be cut, only run alongside other workstreams. National Indigenous organisations have, in the past, expressed serious concern that a fast-track regime risks reducing meaningful consultation to a checklist exercise.

The Assembly of First Nations has previously called for consultation to begin earlier, ideally before a proponent files an application, so that Indigenous concerns shape the scope of a project rather than reacting to it. Officials briefing the bill suggest the legislation will codify that early-engagement step. Whether that satisfies the constitutional standard, and whether the courts will read the bill as meeting the duty to consult, will likely be tested by litigation within months of passage.

Provincial reaction

Provincial governments have been broadly supportive of faster federal timelines, though several have signalled they will defend their own jurisdiction over resource decisions. Alberta has welcomed the proposed clock but warned against any federal mechanism that lets Ottawa overrule provincial environmental conditions. British Columbia, where several large transmission and mining proposals are queued, has taken a more cautious tone, with the province's environment minister noting that speed cannot come at the expense of credibility.

Quebec Premier Christine Fréchette, sworn in last month, has not yet detailed her government's position. Quebec's energy and resource files are tightly held provincially, and any federal expansion of project-screening authority will be watched closely in the National Assembly. Fréchette and Carney met at the start of May, and officials in both capitals describe the relationship as constructive but undefined on the project file.

What the bill will not do

The legislation is not expected to weaken environmental standards themselves. Officials emphasise that emissions thresholds, species-at-risk obligations, and the federal carbon-pricing benchmark will remain unchanged. Nor will the bill alter the Impact Assessment Act's core triggers. The change, ministers stress, is to the speed and orchestration of decisions, not to the substance of what is decided.

The bill is also not expected to address project financing, equity stakes, or Indigenous loan guarantees. Those instruments sit with the Canada Infrastructure Bank and the Department of Finance, and officials say a separate budget-implementation track will carry that work later in the year.

Opposition lines

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, whose caucus campaigned on a similar promise of faster approvals, has signalled tactical support for the principle while reserving the right to attack the bill's specifics. The NDP, now in opposition without leverage, will likely focus its critique on the consultation clauses and on whether the bill genuinely preserves environmental rigour. The Bloc Québécois will examine any encroachment on provincial powers.

Environmental groups have begun to mobilise. Several national organisations have warned that compressing review timelines without strengthening enforcement could entrench a culture of paper compliance, where conditions are checked off but not monitored. Their public submissions are expected once the bill text is available.

What it means for Canadians

For most Canadians, the test of the legislation will be visible months after passage rather than at the moment of tabling. If projects begin moving from announcement to shovel-in-ground in the timelines the government promises, the bill will be remembered as a hinge moment in Canadian economic policy. If the courts intervene early, or if Indigenous organisations withdraw cooperation, the legislation could become a multi-year quagmire of constitutional challenges.

Carney has staked considerable political capital on the promise that the federal government can move at a pace closer to its trading partners. His own background as a central banker and as a senior figure in international finance has shaped his conviction that capital follows certainty. Whether that thesis survives the legislative process is the question that will define the next phase of his premiership.

What's next

The Prime Minister's Office has not yet provided a precise tabling date but has indicated the bill will be introduced before the House rises for summer recess in late June. Officials expect a relatively short committee process and a push to send the bill to the Senate before September. Industry, Indigenous organisations, and environmental groups are all preparing intervention strategies for the committee stage. The first concrete projects to be tested under the new clock are expected to be announced before year-end.