This op-ed by Pierre Gratton, President and CEO of the Mining Association of Canada, was first published in The Hill Times on May 20, 2026.
For many years federal governments, both Liberal and Conservative, promised to reduce red tape and improve permitting timelines. All have failed or, at best, tinkered at the margins.
The result has been declining investment, weaker productivity, fewer good jobs, lower government revenues, fewer economic opportunities for Indigenous communities, and, for the world, an acute over-reliance on one country—China—for needed mineral and metal production.
Provinces have overall jurisdiction of mining, but despite this, the federal government’s regulation of the sector has increased substantially over the past 30 years—usually without consideration of existing federal requirements or duplication with provincial regulations, and imposing an “Ottawa knows best” approach, with “best” seemingly defined by longer timelines and higher costs.
The Mining Association of Canada (MAC) has long advocated for shorter, more predictable timelines for mining project assessments and more efficient permitting processes, but without much success. Now, however, we’re finally starting to see some encouraging, tangible momentum in the right direction across multiple federal departments and agencies.
The Impact Assessment Agency of Canada has begun implementing more disciplined approaches to federal impact assessment. This includes greater reliance on provincial processes and co-operation agreements to address adverse effects within federal jurisdiction of a proposed project, to the greatest extent possible. Agreements now extend beyond British Columbia to include Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island.
Early signs suggest these changes are improving process efficiency, with some mining projects entering the system in 2025 reaching key milestones materially faster than comparable projects a year earlier. That is encouraging, and the federal government’s recently announced proposals to formalize this progress through legislative and regulatory amendments is even more so. Similarly, the government’s commitments to follow through with Transport Canada proposed improvements to the Canadian Navigable Waters Act will reduce permitting uncertainties and timelines.
While we see positive steps, more remains to be done. Fisheries and Oceans Canada has repeatedly promised regulations for routine, low-risk works in and around water, including straightforward activities such as culvert replacement, but those reforms have not yet been delivered. Fisheries Act regulations that support the safe treatment and release of oilsands and technologically and economically feasible regulations for coal process water have been in the works at Environment and Climate Change Canada for 15 years and are needed now. The federal government should also revisit the Impact Assessment Act Project List so that routine mine expansions and other lower-risk activities are not automatically drawn into duplicative federal assessment processes where robust provincial reviews already exist. Federal attention should be focused where there is a clear and material federal interest.
Credit is due, and MAC supports continued focus and progress as the Carney government turns words into action. As the prime minister prepares for his international investor conference later this year, he is starting to collect evidence to help Canada reclaim its status as one of the world’s most investible, mining-friendly jurisdictions.
