EventAction
BC's Infrastructure Projects Act (Bill 15) receives Royal Assent: broad fast-tracking powers that are almost entirely not yet in force
British Columbia's Infrastructure Projects Act (Bill 15) received Royal Assent on 29 May 2025. As passed, it lets cabinet designate "provincially significant" infrastructure projects and then speed them up: prioritized provincial permits, ministerial orders to issue approvals for projects that already hold an environmental assessment certificate, exemptions from local planning rules at a local authority's request, and orders replacing "constraints" that hold a project up. Apart from section 2 (the minister's general powers over infrastructure projects), its provisions come into force only by regulation, and none had been brought into force as of 22 September 2026, according to BC Laws. The province said pipelines and LNG facilities would be excluded from the provincially significant category, MLT Aikins reported. The environmental-assessment exemption for the North Coast Transmission Line is in a separate law passed the same day, Bill 14 (Renewable Energy Projects (Streamlined Permitting) Act), not in Bill 15.
- Date
- Kind
- Legislation
- Where
- British Columbia
- Evidence
- Action: Something was done: a law switched on, a tariff imposed, money committed. How evidence is weighed
- Who
- Government of British Columbia (acted)
Sources
- BC Laws, “Infrastructure Projects Act, SBC 2025, c. 13 (consolidated text, current to September 22, 2026)” (external site). source record
- BC Laws, “Infrastructure Projects Act, SBC 2025, c. 13: Table of Legislative Changes” (external site). source record
- BC Laws, “Bill 15 – 2025: Infrastructure Projects Act (third reading)” (external site), . source record
- MLT Aikins, “Regulatory reform for infrastructure in B.C.: Early guidance on the Infrastructure Projects Act” (external site), . source record
Laws and agreements
- Infrastructure Projects Act (Bill 15 (BC)): this event is its “Royal Assent” stage
Claims that rest on this event
- A law passed is not a power switched on. BC's narrow Bill 14 was in force in 33 days and is being used for the North Coast Transmission Line, but only 1 of Bill 15's 48 sections was in force in late September 2026, 16 months after it passed, Quebec's Bill 5 lapsed, and Ontario has not yet designated any special economic zone. So the test of whether the build-out is locked in must ask whether powers are brought into force and used.
BC's broad fast-track law passed in May 2025, but only its section on the minister's general powers was in force 16 months later.
How it bears on the outcome
| Explanation | Fit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| O0 No meaningful speed-up | Fits weak | Fast-tracking powers that are almost entirely not in force 16 months later, with pipelines and LNG excluded, are consistent with no meaningful speed-up. |
| O1 Faster, but the extra output goes mostly elsewhere | Against weak | A provincial fast-track law left largely unproclaimed would be somewhat surprising under a real speed-up, though one province's law is a small part of the picture. |
| O2 Faster, and more volume reaches the US (this level or higher) | Against weak | A provincial fast-track law left largely unproclaimed would be somewhat surprising under a real speed-up, though one province's law is a small part of the picture. |
| O3 Locked-in preferential terms for the US | Against weak | A provincial fast-track law left largely unproclaimed would be somewhat surprising under a real speed-up, though one province's law is a small part of the picture. |