JV article: Trinity Consultants sees early gains under Ontario’s new rules 

It’s early days for Ontario’s One Project, One Process (1P1P) framework but the mine and all-season road plan for Frontier Lithium’s (TSXV: FL; US-OTC: LITOF) PAK project is already benefiting from the coordinated approach, according to its environmental adviser, Trinity Consultants Canada. 

Launched in October, Ontario’s 1P1P aims to collect the province’s many reviews and approvals into a single pathway for developers. The program assigns each accepted proponent a government team tasked with shepherding the project through provincial processes on the way to mine production. Frontier’s PAK was the first designated project.  

“Having a consistent government point of contact allows Frontier to build trust early in the process with the regulator,” Trinity Canada permitting specialist Don Carr said. “It allows for real-time communication when needed to address the various time-sensitive issues that arise, and ensures the process is continually advancing.” 

Ontario, like the rest of Canada, is trying to encourage mining development to shore up critical minerals for national security and boost its economy in the face of U.S. tariffs and Chinese mineral domination. Toronto-based Trinity has global expertise in environmental permitting and said a key barrier to attracting investment has been the country’s own policies. 

Complex process 

“Canada’s permitting processes, particularly for major mining projects, are often longer and more complex than those in peer jurisdictions,” Carr said. “Canada is a stable, predictable and mining-friendly jurisdiction. However, governments have recognized that long timelines can affect financial decisions around projects and, therefore, their ability to attract domestic and foreign investment.”  

In addition to 1P1P, the federal government agreed in December to coordinate assessments that would otherwise trigger duplicative federal and provincial processes. Ontario has accepted three developers into 1P1P since October. Last month, Kinross Gold’s (TSX: K; NYSE: KGC) Great Bear project joined Canada Nickel’s (TSXV: CNC; US-OTC: CNIKF) Crawford project, and Frontier’s PAK. 

Trinity said an early sign that 1P1P could offer real progress was in Frontier’s application preparations. 

“Prior to 1P1P, we’d often make individual applications for every single permit that was required and would have to re-present the baseline in a manner that was highlighted for that particular process,” Carr said. “But 1P1P gives us one forum to say, all right, here’s all the baseline data, here is the project looking at it as a whole, and then we can have regulator-specific conversations about different technical aspects.” 

Technical improvements 

Ontario’s 1P1P is also updating detailed technical work. For example, water management involves multiple permitting approvals, technical components, baseline studies and monitoring programs across ministries and environmental disciplines.  

“Water is a great example of 1P1P’s technical improvements,” Carr said. “The coordinated review process encourages earlier alignment on what studies need to be conducted and reduces duplication of effort across the separate approval processes.”  

Trinity said Frontier is also benefitting from 1P1P’s improved sequencing of permitting approvals.  

“The Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks traditionally preferred not to have multiple applications of the same type open for a project at the same time,” Carr said.  

Proponents applying for a particular environmental compliance approval for construction activities used to have to wait until that permit was formally approved before applying for the same permit to cover operations. 

“Due to the timelines associated with those processes, it had the potential to cause costly delays mid-construction” Carr said. “Under 1P1P, we’re seeing a greater coordination effort and the regulators have shown an interest in reviewing all the available information together.”  

Project momentum 

Covering construction to operations can help maintain project momentum without compromising the overall review process, he said. 

The 1P1P framework is focused on late-stage projects nearing construction, so assigned staff can focus on projects with a high chance of moving to production. It remains to be seen whether the initiative will be sufficiently resourced as additional projects are brought into the program, Trinity said, but the province has made clear new mining is an economic priority.  

“Invest early in close coordination between engineering and environmental teams,” is Carr’s advice to companies looking to eventually participate. “Regulators require the same level of information under 1P1P as traditional approval processes but because timelines are compressed much of that information is needed up front.”  

For example, he added, if a proponent is applying to participate and is only halfway through its required environmental study work, the regulators will be delayed in getting the data they need.  

Better to take advantage of the guidelines 1P1P has posted and get to work on completing the required data early to ease pre-submission discussions with the program and streamline initial work in construction permitting, Carr said. 

Ontario is a good example of what’s ahead for Canadian mining as the country works to tackle its barriers to investment, he said.  

“The federal government, Nova Scotia, Quebec and British Columbia have all established new processes with additional modernizations to follow in other provinces,” Carr said. “We’re still relatively early in the process for Frontier’s PAK lithium project, so I’m interested to see how it fully plays out over time.”  

The preceding Joint Venture article is PROMOTED CONTENT sponsored by Trinity Consultants and produced in co-operation with The Northern Miner. Visit: https://trinityconsultants.com/ for more information.