Mining dominates Poilievre’s speedy permits list       

Mining investments make up nearly all the resource projects Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre would approve within a year if elected Canadian Prime Minister this month.

Campaigning in British Columbia on Monday for the April 28 election, Poilievre said he would start a “one-and-done” approvals process to accelerate 10 projects. These would need one application and one environmental review, he said.

His list includes NexGen Energy’s (TSX, NYSE: NXE; ASX: NXG) Rook 1 uranium project in Saskatchewan, and several in Ontario: First Mining Gold’s (TSX: FF; US-OTC: FFMGF) Springpole project, Agnico Eagle Mines’ (TSX: AEM; NYSE: AEM) Upper Beaver underground gold and copper mine and roads to access Wyloo Metal’s Ring of Fire project.

Leading the list is the second stage of a natural gas liquefaction project in the northern B.C. port of Kitimat. That venture is being proposed by LNG Canada – a consortium led by Shell, which holds 40%, and Malaysian state petroleum company Petronas with 25%.

“I’m convinced we can get these projects approved in as little as six months,” Poilievre said in Terrace, about 60 km north of Kitimat. “In Germany, they built an LNG import terminal from concept to completion in 178 days. That’s not the approval process. That was approval and construction.”

Campaign theme

Accelerating resource projects as a way to build economic independence from the United States has emerged as one of the campaign’s key themes. The candidates are vying to lead a Canada that – while spared from Trump administration reciprocal tariffs due April 9 – still faces 25% duties on aluminum, steel and some autos.

Poilievre’s main challenger is Liberal leader Mark Carney, who replaced former prime minister Justin Trudeau last month. Carney, a former central bank governor in Britain and Canada, has reversed opinion poll statistics for the Liberals, which under Trudeau had been headed for a devastating loss. Now, Liberals are the choice of 43.9% Canadians versus 37.2% for the Conservatives. The leftist NDP has plunged to 8.6%.

Like Poilievre, Carney has said some large projects would be approved without federal reviews, just provincial. On Monday, Carney said it was compatible to have both the development of conventional oil projects and progress towards the energy transition. He cited Quebec – which uses about 350,000 barrels of oil a day, 70% of which comes from the U.S. – as a province that could benefit from increased oil piped from Alberta.

“There is a big advantage to Canada to push that out, use our own oil, use the resources from that for other things, including protecting our environments our social programmes as well,” he said in Victoria, B.C. “Yes, we are open to having one project, one review to speed these projects of national interest, but that’s because we have confidence in the environmental standards in this case of the province of Quebec.”

Canada Nickel

Second on Poilievre’s list of short approvals is Suncor Energy’s (TSX, NYSE: SU) open-pit Base Mine oils sands extension in Alberta. Other projects on his top 10 list are Canada Nickel’s (TSXV: CNC; US-OTC: CNIKF) Crawford nickel-cobalt project with an on-site metal mill in Ontario; the Troilus Gold (TSX: TLG; US-OTC: CHXMF) gold and copper project in Quebec; the Sorel-Tracy port terminal in Quebec; and AuMEGA Metals’ (ASX: AAM; US-OTC: MZZMF) Cape Ray gold and silver project in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Poilievre said his one-stop shop would be called the Rapid Resource Project Office to handle regulatory approvals across all levels of government. He envisions it reviewing mines, roads, LNG terminals, hydro projects and nuclear power stations within six months to a year, “giving businesses certainty, cutting delays, and getting shovels in the ground faster.”

Bill C-69

The Liberals plan to fast-track projects such as B.C.’s Cedar LNG project and Ontario’s Ring of Fire, while largely keeping the legislation passed in 2019 as Bill C-69. That law became the Impact Assessment Act for assessing a project’s environmental, social and economic impacts and the Canadian Energy Regulator Act to oversee the development and transportation of energy.

Carney also plans to keep the industrial carbon tax in place as well as a target to reduce Canadian carbon emissions to 35% below 2019 levels by 2030 – a measure that Poilievre calls an energy production cap.

“Mark Carney and [former Environment and Climate Change Minister] Steven Guilbeault’s keep-it-in-the-ground ideology – which maintains Bill C-69, the energy production cap, and the industrial carbon tax – will continue to stifle development in Canada, leading to job losses and increased reliance on foreign imports,” Poilievre said. “We will cooperate with provincial governments to get all approvals into this single office.”