Quebec, Ottawa agree to streamline environmental assessments
Posted July 20, 2026 12:10 pm.
Last Updated July 20, 2026 4:25 pm.
Quebec and Ottawa have agreed to streamline the environmental assessment process for major infrastructure and resource development projects.
In a joint announcement made on Monday, Quebec Environment Minister Pascale Déry and Federal Minister and Quebec Lieutenant Joël Lightbound announced they had reached an agreement in principle to expedite the assessment process for major projects, such as mine development, port construction, or oil pipeline construction.
The agreement in principle ensures the Quebec environmental assessment system is the sole framework applied to projects under Quebec’s jurisdiction.
“This, of course, eliminates all the duplication (of assessments) that we’ve seen since the adoption of the new Federal Impact Assessment Act in 2019,” said Déry .
“We need to strengthen our economy and diversify our markets, which means developing our projects more efficiently and quickly.”
“We are not compromising in any way on our high environmental standards and requirements. On the contrary… we are trying to be more efficient.”
Public consultation
The federal government is “launching a 21-day public consultation” on the matter, said Lightbound, adding the goal is “to ratify this agreement within a month.”
When asked whether the 21-day consultation period in the middle of July might be too short to encourage public participation, Lightbound replied that “preliminary work” had already been done, noting that “Indigenous groups have already been consulted regarding this draft agreement.”
Over the past year, following the most recent amendment to the federal Environmental Impact Assessment Act, the federal government has entered into bilateral agreements with seven other provinces to limit duplication in environmental assessments across Canada.
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews
