10 years would be light speed...
Les Leyne: Plan to streamline urgent projects will take a decade
The province wants to clear away all the backlog of projects awaiting government permits, but it’s giving itself 10 years to meet that goal.
There is a touch of absurdity in the new “Look West” economic master plan for B.C. that the NDP government dropped this week.
It puts huge emphasis on speeding up and streamlining permitting, reducing barriers and delays and “removing duplication across regulatory frameworks.”
It sets a wonderful goal — clearing away all the backlog of projects awaiting government permits.
But what raises eyebrows is the fact that the government is giving itself 10 years to meet that goal.
“By 2035, 100 per cent of all permitting turnaround times will be met — meaning no backlogs — and B.C.’s regulatory system will be profiled as the best in the world, with predictable, timely authorizations that meet world-leading environmental standards.”
Embarking on a crash program to wipe out all the bureaucratic delays and then giving yourself a full decade to do it is more than a little incongruous.
Particularly since the government goes to some length to congratulate itself on all the work it’s already completed in cutting red tape.
The document says all 1,000 housing projects that were backlogged have been cleared, and turnaround times have been cut by 15 per cent.
Applications in one category have been accelerated by 53 per cent, it says, cutting the wait from 322 days to 152. Mining backlogs have been cut by half, while turnaround times for some applications have been cut by 13 per cent.
If you take it at its word, the government has been working furiously to speed up project approvals and make all the government systems much more efficient.
But it needs 10 more years to erase backlogs.
natural-resources.canada.ca
