Dear --
New and expanded schools, hospitals, and other health care facilities are critical for growing communities. That's why our government has been working to implement the single largest and most ambitious capital infrastructure plan in BC history. We currently have 226 major school projects, more than three dozen major hospital and health care projects, and over 10,700 student housing beds complete or underway in communities across the province, including right here in North Vancouver, and there's more to do.
Despite our efforts, however, an exploding population in recent years has meant that even a record-breaking financial investment isn't enough to ensure new infrastructure is keeping up with the growing needs of British Columbians. We need to find ways to do this faster, better, and more economically. That's why my new Ministry of Infrastructure was created, and why I tabled Bill 15: The Infrastructure Projects Act last week.
Through our experience of past projects, we have seen how critically important community projects can sometimes be unnecessarily delayed by bureaucracy and red tape. Projects like a fully funded elementary school that couldn't break ground for two years because it had to wait in line for its permit application to be reviewed. Or a provincially-funded student housing project on a university campus that was held up for over a year because of a step that was practically unnecessary, but bureaucratically required.
To be clear, permitting processes are important. They protect public health and safety, the environment, and ensure that projects are built right. But when things go sideways and public projects are held up by red tape in a way that doesn't add value to the public, it's a problem. Delayed projects mean that communities don't get to benefit from the public infrastructure they need, and escalation costs due to project delays are dollars that taxpayers end up paying for. It's not good enough, and it needs to change.
That's where the Infrastructure Projects Act comes in. It's about dealing with redundancies and overlapping red tape that can sometimes ensnare important projects in our communities, without reducing environmental standards or compromising on our obligations to First Nations. It provides our ministry with new tools to help important public projects move along when they get stuck so that we can get things built, and ensures that the money taxpayers have invested is money well spent.
At the same time, we know that the provincial government is not the only entity that delivers projects that are critically important for British Columbians. Local governments, First Nations, crown corporations, and even private sector partners are often on the front lines of delivering critically important projects that communities rely on. For example, when disaster strikes and a community is devastated by a wildfire or flood, typical permitting processes are often barriers to a speedy post-disaster recovery. The Infrastructure Projects Act can help in these situations by allowing communities to focus on rebuilding, rather than red tape.
There's more to do to deliver the infrastructure that people need in our growing communities, and this is an important step forward in this work. Now, let's get those schools, hospitals, and other important facilities built!
--Bowinn Ma, MLA
North Vancouver-Lonsdale
P.S. Click here for more information on Bill 15: The Infrastructure Projects Act.
.jpg?1746657014754)
