The Canadian government aims to introduce new legislation to expedite critical material mining project permitting times, but will the new legislation be sufficient to tackle long-term concerns over material supply? 

The Canadian government hopes to introduce legislation to cut red tape and accelerate the permitting process for critical materials projects. This news comes as the government hopes to increase its domestic reserves and supplies of metals listed in its critical materials list, including lithium, cobalt, nickel, and 28 others. Recent developments in the US have been cited as a key reason for this push. In recent years, the US has introduced the Inflation Reduction Act, a multi-disciplinary piece of legislation which, among other things, aims to cut down on critical materials project permitting times and bring on new domestic sources of these metals.

The Canadian government had previously introduced the Impact Assessment Act in 2019 to combat the same problem of slow permitting times. However, in practice, the impact of this has been less-than-ideal, with permitting times at critical materials projects still exceeding the five-and-a-half-year target. This newest round of legislation is planned to be introduced in the Autumn when the Canadian government intends to publish a budget update.

Experts in the critical materials sector have been calling for the streamlining of legislative processes for many years and with demand for various critical materials predicted to climb significantly over the next decade, these calls have only become louder. However, the details of the legislation have not yet been revealed. Common delays that new mining projects face when attempting to secure permitting in Canada are often related to environmental regulations and local indigenous community opposition. How the Canadian government aims to expedite the processes related to these remains to be seen. Additionally, the critical materials sector faces other supply concerns. The lithium mineral sector, for example, has seen equipment lead times for new project infrastructure become a rising concern. While the move to streamline the project permitting process will no doubt be welcomed by mine developers, there are other concerns that require further scrutiny and management to truly ease apprehensions around the sourcing of critical materials.