QUESTION PERIOD — Ministry of Natural Resources
Regulatory Reform
October 9, 2025
Welcome to the Senate, Minister Hodgson.
In August, when you were in Berlin, you made a pitch to international partners that Canada was an excellent candidate for investment, citing four characteristics: resources, stability, responsibility and speed. To balance responsibility and speed, I want to focus on the use of internationally recognized consensus-based standards, such as the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance, or IRMA, which has developed standards and protocols that are recognized by the Mining Association of Canada. These types of standards promise to achieve inclusive, ethical, sustainable and safe outcomes without the use of heavy-handed or rigid regulations. Are you considering the use of standards in your regulatory approach to encourage investment?
What I notice around the world when we speak with what I will call like-minded allies is they view our environmental standards, they view the way we engage with First Nations and involve them in partnership as a positive. I will use the analogy of — and maybe it is a good one or not — you could buy a Toyota, or you could buy a Lexus. One has a lot more features; one has a little more luxury to it. You can buy the stripped-down version where countries don’t do things in an environmentally responsible way or do it running roughshod over Indigenous Peoples, or you can do it the right way with a country that knows how to do it.
When I talk to countries like Germany, Japan, the U.K. and France, it is clear to me which one they would rather buy.
Thank you, minister. Nova Scotia has created a new initiative called the Large Industrial File Team, or LIFT, that brings together the expertise necessary to provide one approval for what might otherwise be very slow, complex project approvals across many agencies. Might provincial regulatory initiatives like LIFT provide federal regulators with another regulatory modernization option to consider, possibly even devolving authority to a province?
I believe that’s exactly what “one project, one review” is about. We have said to provinces that where they develop equivalent regulations that are bespoke to their particular needs and jurisdictions, as long as there is an equivalent outcome, the federal government will rely on the province.
We have negotiated that with British Columbia. We are in the process of negotiating that with the other provinces. We are fairly advanced with many of them. Some are a little more challenging to deal with. I will draw your attention to the Ksi Lisims project. B.C. approved the project at four o’clock. We approved the project at 4:30.
Honourable senators, the time for Question Period has expired. I am certain that you will want to join me in thanking Minister Hodgson for joining us today. Thank you very much, minister.
