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Editor’s note: Bill 15 became law on May 28. Read our latest coverage here.
Premier David Eby leaned heavily on nostalgia for B.C.’s legendary building booms as he spoke Tuesday about controversial new legislation that would give his government sweeping powers to push ahead with infrastructure projects, regardless of their environmental impact.
Bill 15, the Infrastructure Projects Act, may be blandly named but it has First Nations, local governments, legal experts, environmental advocates and opposition MLAs warning of troubling government overreach. One critic described it as a blank cheque that would give the current government — and all those to come — the power to pick priority projects and exempt them from “any type of permitting or environmental assessment requirement that it deems is slowing down the project.”
Speaking in the legislature, Eby invoked the construction of massive hydro dams, highways carved through treacherous terrain and the Second World War, when North Vancouver’s shipyards built many of the cargo ships that supplied the Allied forces.
“This history of building, of meeting the moment, doesn’t have to be a tale that our grandparents talk about,” Eby said. “This can be the story of British Columbia today and it needs to be, because British Columbia right now is going to be the economic engine of the new Canada that we all know we need.”
Infrastructure Minister Bowinn Ma, who was tapped last November to lead the new, standalone ministry, maintained Bill 15’s aim is to make it possible for the government to support projects British Columbians want to see in their communities.
“We need to get the schools built,” Ma told The Narwhal. “We need to get the hospitals built. We need to bring economic opportunity into communities that desperately need it.”
But while Bill 15 gives the Ministry of Infrastructure the authority to manage the kinds of public sector projects governments routinely commission, it also contains clauses that could give the provincial government the power to deem pretty much any kind of public or private project — from mines to ports to clean energy and disaster recovery — “provincially significant.”
Any project so anointed would be pushed to the front of the queue for provincial permits and potentially exempted from a fulsome and transparent environmental assessment, potentially avoiding scrutiny from the public, scientists, local governments and First Nations.
Jeremy Valeriote, interim leader of the BC Green Party, said Bill 15 would grant the NDP cabinet sweeping powers “under the guise of fast-tracking major infrastructure projects,” including bypassing the jurisdiction of First Nations.
In a statement, Terry Teegee, regional Chief of the B.C. Assembly of First Nations, warned the government may be breaching federal and provincial requirements to consult with First Nations on matters that impact Indigenous Rights and Title by “ramming through Bill 15 without any First Nations input.”
Eby has acknowledged his government failed to meet the consultation standard set in B.C.’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act but insists his government is not backsliding on its commitments to reconciliation and Indigenous Rights.
“You cannot fast-track a project in Canada unless you have the support of First Nations,” Eby said in the legislature, citing federal and provincial commitments to recognizing Indigenous Rights and Title.
“This isn’t about abandoning reconciliation — this is about delivering on the commitments to work in partnership with First Nations and ensure that we’re responding to the challenge of our time, which is climate change,” he added.
Eby promised Bill 15 will help the government secure “clean, affordable energy in every corner of this province with projects that deliver the cleanest metals, minerals and resources that the world needs.”
Bill 15’s powers are both sweeping and vague, with little definition included in the bill, making it difficult to understand the true scope of its potential impacts. But critics warn it could give the B.C. cabinet unprecedented power to make closed-door decisions that could sidestep environmental impacts and Indigenous Rights.
So what exactly is Bill 15? And why are people so concerned?
For months, the B.C. government has been repeating the refrain that fast-tracking projects — from major power lines to mines, wind farms and liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities — is essential to support economic development and protect the province from the impacts of U.S. tariffs.
Before Ma introduced Bill 15, Energy Minister Adrian Dix put forward Bill 14, the Renewable Energy Projects (Streamlined Permitting) Act. That legislation would exempt renewable energy projects and major power lines from environmental assessments and put the BC Energy Regulator — largely funded by the oil and gas industry — in charge of issuing permits.
Ma’s bill is much, much broader. It would empower the B.C. cabinet to decide that any infrastructure project deemed to have major economic, social or environmental benefits is “provincially significant.”
The government says it has not yet developed the criteria for the “provincially significant” designation. However, the list of 13 criteria under consideration covers a wide range including critical minerals, food, water, energy or supply chain security, post-disaster recovery and the province’s climate goals.
Once cabinet decrees a project “provincially significant,” the infrastructure minister would have broad powers to speed up the permitting process.
For example, the minister could allow a project to bypass the usual environmental assessment process in favour of an “expedited” assessment. But Bill 15 doesn’t specify what an expedited environmental assessment process would look like; those details will be decided by the minister.
Andhra Azevedo, a staff lawyer with environmental law charity Ecojustice, said the minister would have the power to determine the scope of an environmental assessment, including its timelines and methods and if there will be any public input.
Ma told The Narwhal she objected to the “serious allegations” that Bill 15 could allow projects to bypass existing environmental assessment requirements. She said the Environmental Assessment Act already gives the government authority to streamline the assessment process for projects it considers less complex or impactful.
Ma said Bill 15 provides a similar pathway that could be chosen in “certain circumstances where a project has the conditions necessary to be successful under a streamlined process” — such as support from local First Nations and communities.
“The point of Bill 15 is to get to a yes or no decision more quickly,” Ma said.
Bill 15 will also give the infrastructure minister the power to push a designated project to the front of the permitting queue. If permits still prove too time-consuming to obtain under existing regulations, the minister can initiate a process to streamline requirements that are holding up a project. If that fails to move things along, the minister would have the power to recommend cabinet replace the requirements with new regulations.
The Union of BC Municipalities raised concerns about the bill, saying the province did not meaningfully consult with local governments before tabling legislation that would “give the cabinet extraordinary powers” to bypass local and provincial regulations and approval processes.
Azevedo said the government has set up multiple processes for negotiation, “but at the end of the day, if those fall through, then the minister and cabinet have given themselves the power to just step in and push it through anyway.”
“How much power do these regulators and authorities even continue to have with any of these designated projects if, for whatever reason, they can’t either come to an agreement or don’t agree to the measures that would sufficiently prioritize or expedite a project?” she asked.
Ma insisted the “vast, vast majority” of projects affected by Bill 15 will be public infrastructure projects.
“This is about ensuring that growing communities have the infrastructure that they need,” she told reporters, adding that community amenities, such as new pools or community centres, could be deemed “provincially significant” and sped along.
Ma also mentioned economic development opportunities — a vague term politicians use to refer to almost any project that creates jobs — as potential candidates for Bill 15’s powers.
“We recognize in this moment that provincial infrastructure is not the only type of infrastructure that communities desperately need to see get built,” Ma said.
Eby said Bill 15 won’t be used to expedite LNG facilities or pipelines, but Valeriote, with the BC Greens, said that provision “needs to be in black and white” in the bill.
Ma said the government plans to bar LNG facilities and pipelines from being designated as “provincially significant” projects even though it’s not in the text of the bill. She said the exclusion will be included in the definitions released after Bill 15 becomes law.
Azevedo worries Bill 15’s lack of detail could make it easy for future governments to keep adding to the types of projects that can be fast-tracked.
“There is this potential for greater and greater expansion of what these classes of designated projects could be, if they’re not willing to be upfront and just put it in the actual language of the bill,” she pointed out.
Eby attempted to allay some of those concerns during his speech in the legislature.
“I know, given the history of this province, why there is anxiety from some corners about an abandoning of commitments around reconciliation, around the environment — but that is not where we’re going with this,” he said, adding that his government is committed to environmental protection, climate action and reconciliation with First Nations.
But Azevedo pointed out the law does not explicitly require other processes aimed at upholding Indigenous Rights — such as allowing Indigenous governments to request dispute resolution or conduct an independent environmental assessment — to be part of the expedited assessment.
Bill 15 bars any fast-tracked project from evading consultation obligations with First Nations, as required by B.C.’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act — a fact Ma and Eby have repeatedly emphasized.
However, both acknowledged the legislation was drafted without the usual level of input from First Nations, a misstep that drew stern condemnation from the First Nations Leadership Council.
“We are deeply alarmed by the province’s continued backsliding on reconciliation,” Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, president of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs, said in a statement.
Robert Phillips, a long-serving member of the First Nations Leadership Council, told The Narwhal he has made it clear to B.C. cabinet ministers that they are “playing with fire” by pushing Bill 15 through.
“Reconciliation and economic growth are not incompatible, they go hand in hand,” he said. “If the province chooses to neglect the former in a misguided attempt to advance the latter, it will quickly find itself mired in legal proceedings that benefit absolutely no one.”
Phillips attended a First Nations Leadership Council meeting with Eby just after Bill 15’s introduction in early May and said the government’s lack of consultation on the legislation featured prominently in discussions.
“I think they want to move some of these projects ahead right away and they’re going to do it, it seems, at all cost,” Phillips told The Narwhal. “In my words, there will be dire consequences to this.”
Ma said the meeting she and the premier had with the council was productive.
“Our commitment to working with them through regulations, which is really where the rubber hits the road, was made very clear,” she told reporters.
“That’s backwards,” Phillips countered. “They’re going to implement laws and then we’re going to be fiddling around with policies and procedures and regulations? No, that’s not the way.”
Green Party house leader Rob Botterell said lack of consultation with First Nations could mean Bill 15 does not achieve its goal of fast-tracking projects.
“We all know what’s going to happen; it’s just going to line the pockets of lawyers with a whole bunch of litigation,” Botterell, a lawyer, told reporters. “You’ve got to take the time to get it right, and you’ve got to respect the democratic process.”
Former Canadian justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould predicted on social media that Bill 15 will result in “more lawsuits [from project proponents and First Nations], more uncertainty and poorer economic and environmental outcomes.”
The government appears dead set on making Bill 15 law before the legislature pauses for the summer on May 29. In addition to making it a confidence vote — meaning the government could fall if Bill 15 fails to pass — the government ordered debate on the legislation to conclude on May 28. At that point — regardless of where Bill 15 is in the legislative process — it is set to go to a final vote, which the NDP has the seats to win even if all opposition MLAs vote against it.
Conservative Party of BC Leader John Rustad condemned the government’s move to curtail debate on Bill 15 and five other pieces of legislation.
“They want to use closure, an undemocratic process, to move forward bills … that give unlimited ability to government and to override the actual democratic process,” Rustad told reporters.
When the final vote on Bill 15 is called, Azevedo said many MLAs will have little understanding of what it is they are voting on because many of the consequential definitions will not be made public until after the bill becomes law.
“This government is giving a blank cheque to itself and using all the processes it can to answer the fewest number of questions about how its powers are actually going to be limited in any effective way,” she said. “I think that should be a concern to anyone who wants to know that [the] government is going to follow the normal rules and be accountable.”
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