Canada unveils draft law to speed major project approvals within one year

Speed is the substance here: a statutory one-year clock on federal permitting decisions targets the timeline risk that has long complicated the investment case for large developments, including the mining and energy projects that feed critical-minerals and RWA-adjacent supply chains. The draft language leaves the harder questions open — what counts as a complete application, and whether the deadline binds or merely guides. Whether the clock survives the legislative process intact, and how provincial and Indigenous consultation requirements interact with it, is what to watch.