British Columbia’s government is adding 17 more projects to a list of major developments it hopes to fast-track.
The move builds on 18 initial projects announced last year as part of the NDP government’s “Look West” economic plan.
They include several major mining and natural resource projects, including the Red Chris mine expansion in the northwest and Cedar LNG export facility in Kitimat.
Premier David Eby announced on Wednesday that $88 billion in proposed major projects are on track to move forward over the next three years.
He said B.C. needs to focus on developing its natural resources to guard against economic uncertainty due to U.S. tariffs and the conflict in Iran.
The latest additions to the list include:
- Red Mountain underground gold mine near Stewart.
- Fording River coal operations extension in the Elk Valley.
- Greenhills Operations open-pit coal mining northeast of Elkford.
- Copper Mountain’s new Ingerbelle extension south of Princeton.
- Baptiste nickel mine in central B.C.
- New Polaris mine in northwest B.C.
- Trail smelter operations upgrade in the Kootenays.
- Yellowhead Copper project near Vavenby in the Thompson-Nicola region.
- Phase 2 expansion of the Blackwater mine in central B.C.
- Enbridge’s Westcoast natural gas pipeline expansion.
- KSM mine northwest of Stewart.
- Ksi Lisims LNG facility on Pearse Island and the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission pipeline.
- LNG Canada, Phase 2 in Kitimat.
- Woodfibre LNG in Squamish.
- FortisBC Tilbury LNG, Phase 2 on Tilbury Island in Delta.
- Pembina NGL pipeline, Birch to Taylor expansion.
- Pembina NGL pipeline, Taylor to Gordondale expansion.
B.C. passed Bill 15, or the Infrastructure Projects Act, last May. It would grant Cabinet broader powers to expedite the approval of projects deemed to be of provincial significance.
Bill 14, the Renewable Energy Projects (Streamlined Permitting) Act, was also passed last spring to fast-track approvals for renewable energy projects.
Although the bills were passed last year, regulations to bring the acts into force have not yet been introduced.
Eby said the province has still been able to work with the companies with priority projects to assist them through the current regulatory process.
“We’ve had some really good successes in moving things along faster through traditional channels, but we do expect there will still be projects that will benefit from Bills 14 and 15 and look forward to that soon,” he said.
