First Nations leadership locks arms with B.C. municipalities in call for withdrawal of Bill 15 – Windspeaker.com
May 23, 2025
In a unified stand, the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) and the First Nations Leadership Council (FNLC), made up of the political heads of the BC Assembly of First Nations, First Nations Summit, and the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, have called on British Columbia to withdraw Bill 15, the Infrastructure Project Act.
Bill 15 is designed to expedite approvals for projects through granting greater ministerial powers. The bill, says the FNLC and UBCM, gives the province sweeping powers to fast-track major projects while skipping key steps in environmental assessment and oversight, mandatory public comment periods, and engagement with First Nations.
The Act is purportedly part of a response to tariffs imposed by the United States administration of President Donald Trump. Canada’s new federal government, led by Prime Minister Mark Carney, was elected with a mandate to build major national projects to become less reliant on the U.S. as a trading and security partner. Provincial governments are preparing to lessen the impacts of the tariffs on their own economies by looking to access resources the rest of the world may want as trade with Asia and Europe opens.
