B.C.'s new government inherits a permit queue the courts still control
Premier Lorne Doerkson’s pledge to speed up mining permits faces key hurdles outside Victoria’s direct control. Court decisions on Indigenous consent, federal legislation, and ongoing legal challenges will continue to dictate project timelines regardless of provincial policy shifts.
Lorne Doerkson on X, election night, October 24, 2026
British Columbia's first Conservative majority in nearly a century takes office promising faster mine permits. The decisions that set the pace for the province's contested projects sit with the courts, with First Nations consent agreements and with Ottawa, and a change of premier moves none of them on its own.
Preliminary results from the October 24 snap election give the Conservatives 64 of 93 seats, with the final count due November 6. Premier-designate Lorne Doerkson said "his top priority would be repealing the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, known as DRIPA." The party's platform pledged to "cut red tape, speed up permits and support more production and processing in B.C." Meanwhile, Ottawa is advancing its own fast lane: Bill C-39, the Building Canada Strong Act, passed second reading on October 8, and on October 30 the federal government listed the $5.9 billion Roberts Bank Terminal 2 container port as a project of national interest.
DRIPA sits at the centre of the province's mining law because of one ruling. On December 5, 2025, a majority of the B.C. Court of Appeal, hearing cases brought by the Gitxaała Nation and the Ehattesaht First Nation, held that DRIPA brings the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) into provincial law with immediate effect. It declared B.C.'s mineral tenure system inconsistent with that declaration. The Supreme Court of Canada has granted the province leave to appeal. As of May 2026, no hearing date had been set.
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Repealing DRIPA would remove the statute that ruling rests on. It would not remove the Crown's constitutional duty to consult under Section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982, and it would not end the appeal already before the Supreme Court.
RCMP officers and protesters at the Fairy Creek blockade on Vancouver Island, August 2021, during enforcement of a logging injunction.Joshua Wright via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
The old ground
Some of the ground now under dispute was first staked by hand. The Zeballos gold rush of 1934 to 1938 drew prospectors up the west coast of Vancouver Island, and claims went in across Clayoquot Sound, Bedwell Inlet and Buttle Lake. The Fandora gold workings above Tranquil Creek, about 20 kilometres from Tofino, were first staked in the 1930s and have been largely dormant for half a century.
In February 2026 the province issued a five-year exploration permit at Fandora to Selkirk Metals Corp., a subsidiary of Imperial Metals. The Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation has opposed the company's work there for more than a decade. "We call on the province to rescind these permits," said Chief Councillor Elmer Frank. "The ministry is incapable of hearing no," said Saya Masso, the nation's lands and resources manager. The Ahousaht, whose territory overlaps the claim, say they were consulted and are "actively engaged" with the project. The Ministry of Mining and Critical Minerals said First Nations consent "is not a legal requirement."
The company holding the Tofino permit is not a prospector working old ground. Imperial Metals owns 30% of Red Chris, the copper-gold mine Newmont operates in the Golden Triangle, and all of Mount Polley, the mine whose tailings dam failed in 2014. Its 30% share of Red Chris alone produced 27.9 million pounds of copper and 27,729 ounces of gold in 2025, and Mount Polley added 30.7 million pounds of copper and 37,555 ounces of gold from 6.7 million tonnes of ore. For 2026 the company has guided Red Chris to 60 to 66 million pounds of copper and 47,500 to 52,500 ounces of gold on a 100% basis, and Mount Polley to 19 to 21 million pounds of copper and 40,000 to 44,000 ounces of gold. The block cave the province permitted at Red Chris in June carries an initial mineral reserve of 8.1 million ounces of gold and 2.2 million tonnes of copper. Set against those numbers, Fandora is a five-year permit with no resource estimate in any category. Whether Imperial drills it before the five years run out is the question Clayoquot Sound is now waiting on.
Opposition in Clayoquot extends past the nations. The Tofino Chamber of Commerce sent the province a letter opposing the project, and Mayor Dan Law called a mine in the sound a "no-go." Visitors spent $430 million in the region in 2024. The 2024 Clayoquot conservancies, which bar mining, left the Fandora site out. Imperial also holds exploration permits for copper on Catface Mountain, 13 kilometres northwest of Tofino in Ahousaht territory, which the Ahousaht describe as "culturally significant."
North of the sound, Privateer Gold Ltd. holds a Zeballos permit that "allows for up to 100 drill sites over a five year period," according to the Ehattesaht, who are co-appellants in the tenure case. At Buttle Lake, the Myra Falls zinc-copper mine has been on care and maintenance since December 2023.
The north: consent first, permits second
In the Golden Triangle, signed agreements did the work a new government says it wants to do. In December 2025, 77.4% of Tahltan voters approved an impact benefits agreement for Skeena Gold + Silver's Eskay Creek, worth almost $2 billion in cash, contracts and wages. Operations are expected to restart in 2027. On June 19, 2026 the province amended the permits for Newmont's Red Chris block cave, a project it describes as developed in partnership with the Tahltan Nation. Newmont is working toward a final investment decision later this year.
Projects without that footing are where the disputes sit. The province is reconsidering whether Seabridge Gold's KSM project has reached a "substantial start," which decides whether its 2014 environmental certificate stays valid for the life of the project. The Tsetsaut Skii km Lax Ha Nation and the Gitxsan Huwilp Government are calling for conditions. At Imperial's Mount Polley, the site of the 2014 tailings dam breach, ministers allowed a dam raise to go to permitting without an environmental assessment in March 2025. The Xatśūll First Nation answered with a judicial review and an injunction application.
The pattern under the outgoing government was consistent. Projects with consent agreements moved, and projects without them went to court. Shorter permit timelines do the least for the first group, which already has them, and invite litigation over the second.
The industry's complaint is the clock. S&P Global found in July 2024 that mines in Canada take about 27 years on average from first discovery to first production, counting projects still in development, against 20 years in Australia. Only Zambia and the United States were slower. A government that promises faster permits is answering that number; the nations and the courts answer for what the ground is worth.
Ottawa's hand
Prime Minister Mark Carney congratulated Doerkson on election night. "I look forward to working with you as Premier to get more homes built, unleash our full potential as an energy superpower, and build a stronger British Columbia and a stronger Canada for all," he wrote on X on October 24. The two met by video on October 27. "This afternoon, Premier-designate @LDoerkson and I discussed how we can seize major economic opportunities across the province, build out infrastructure, and unlock our full potential as an energy superpower," Carney wrote on X that evening, opening the post with "British Columbia is central to building a more prosperous Canada." That morning he had posted on mining directly: "Canada has the critical minerals the world needs. We're matching Ontario's $1 billion investment to build road infrastructure to reach the Ring of Fire." A Prime Minister's Office readout, which Doerkson posted, recorded "alignment on the need for progressing improved infrastructure and services in B.C." and a "joint desire" to make conditions for natural gas and LNG investment competitive.
Ottawa's record on B.C. mines started before the new government took office. On September 11, 2025, Carney put Newmont's Red Chris expansion among the first five projects referred to the federal Major Projects Office, which aims to bring approval of projects of national interest down "to a maximum of two years." "Critical Minerals and mining are industries of national interest," he said that day. In November 2025 he referred the Northwest Critical Conservation Corridor, which covers the Golden Triangle, along with the North Coast Transmission Line. Ottawa said the power line would enable "critical minerals developments in the Golden Triangle." Imperial Metals, which holds the Fandora permit, owns 30% of Red Chris.
The larger change is Bill C-39, the Building Canada Strong Act. It passed second reading on October 8 by 296 votes to 26, with Liberal and Conservative support, and is now before a special Commons committee. The 243-page bill would require a federal decision on a designated project within one year of the proponent filing complete information. It would also let cabinet designate whole regions as being in the national interest, so that certain projects there fall under a framework similar to the one for national-interest projects.
The fast lane is already moving freight. On October 30, Ottawa listed Roberts Bank Terminal 2, a $5.9 billion container terminal at the Port of Vancouver in Delta, as a project of national interest under the Building Canada Act. The listing gives the project "upfront certainty on the remaining applicable federal regulatory authorizations" and pulls its expected start of commercial operations forward from 2039 to 2035. It adds about 50% to the port's container capacity, and Ottawa tied it to a goal of doubling exports to non-U.S. markets by 2035. A port is the last step for B.C.'s minerals, not the first. By Strikepoint's count, about 50 B.C. projects held by listed companies are past exploration and heading toward permits, from KSM and Schaft Creek to Eskay Creek and Cariboo Gold, and they move at the pace of the provincial queue.
Critics read the same bill as a threat to the consent process this article describes. "The massive, 243-page bill bulldozes environmental protections, Indigenous rights and attacks the right to strike," journalist Rachel Gilmore wrote on Bluesky on the night of the vote. On October 28 she wrote that "voice after voice from Indigenous leadership, youth, from across the country" was "telling us they're gearing up for a fight for their rights."
A "No Consent, No Pipeline" banner in Victoria during Wet'suwet'en solidarity actions, February 2020.KABerglund via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Ottawa has also stepped back from a measure aimed at the province's coal terminals. In 2021 Canada committed to banning thermal coal exports by 2030. A federal auditor general's report tabled October 29 found that Environment and Climate Change Canada stopped work on the ban in November 2024, and that the decision was not formalized until August 2025, "with no public announcement." The Canadian Press reported that the work stopped after lobbying from the coal industry. Thermal coal exports were higher in 2025 than in 2021, and 61% of the thermal coal shipped from Canadian ports in 2025 came from the United States, mostly by rail to B.C. terminals. "The lack of public information and updates on the government's current approach is concerning," the report said.
The seabed
Vancouver is home to the two listed companies at the edge of the deep-sea debate, and a government that campaigned to "support more production and processing in B.C." is a friendlier neighbour for both. The permits that decide their projects sit with Washington, the United Nations seabed regulator and Ottawa. Victoria issues none of them.
On August 19, 2026, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) found that The Metals Company's consolidated U.S. application "is in full compliance with the information requirements" of the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act. Public comment closed October 19. The application targets polymetallic nodules in the Pacific, outside Canadian waters. The International Seabed Authority (ISA), the UN body that governs the deep seabed beyond national jurisdiction, opened an inquiry into whether two company subsidiaries, Nauru Ocean Resources Inc. and Tonga Offshore Mining Ltd., breached their UN exploration contracts by seeking U.S. permits over the same ground. In July 2026 the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea declined to halt that inquiry and ordered the ISA to ensure the companies receive due process.
Federal law closes the domestic route. In February 2023, Ottawa said Canada "will not authorize seabed mining in areas under its jurisdiction" without a rigorous regulatory framework, and none has been written since. In July 2023 Canada backed a moratorium on seabed mining beyond national jurisdiction. Deep Sea Minerals Corp. (CSE: SEAS) has applied to NOAA for an exploration licence through a U.S. subsidiary. In July 2026, after a review by the B.C. Securities Commission, it acknowledged that some of its promotional statements omitted facts or lacked substantiation. The provincial levers that touch these companies are the securities regulator and any future onshore processing, not the mines ministry.
Duty to consult; any mine needs a new Mines Act decision
Catface copper, Clayoquot
Imperial Metals
Exploration permits
Ahousaht territory
Permit terms
Duty to consult
Zeballos gold
Privateer Gold
Exploration, up to 100 drill sites
Ehattesaht, appellant in the tenure case
Tenure rules, if DRIPA goes
The Supreme Court outcome
Eskay Creek
Skeena Gold + Silver
Restart targeted 2027
Tahltan consent agreement
Timelines
Terms of the Tahltan agreement
Red Chris block cave
Newmont
Permits amended June 2026
Developed with the Tahltan
Little left to approve
Newmont's investment decision
KSM
Seabridge Gold
Substantial-start review
Tsetsaut Skii km Lax Ha, Gitxsan Huwilp seek conditions
The substantial-start determination
Judicial review of it
Mount Polley dam raise
Imperial Metals
Permitting without an environmental assessment
Xatśūll judicial review and injunction
Permit decisions
The court's ruling
Seabed nodules
The Metals Company; Deep Sea Minerals
NOAA review; ISA inquiry
Ottawa's 2023 position; the ISA
Securities oversight, onshore processing
U.S., UN and federal permits
What comes next
The dates to watch are the November 6 final count, the naming of a mines minister, the text of any DRIPA repeal bill, the committee report on Bill C-39, a Supreme Court hearing date in the Gitxaała case, and NOAA's certification decision on The Metals Company.
The prospectors who staked the island in the 1930s left most of what they found in the ground. In 1966 A. Fraser Buckham, a former Geological Survey of Canada geologist and chief of exploration for Canadian Collieries, said of the seams running under the Strait of Georgia that "there must have been an amount of coal approximately equal to what's been won from the whole Nanaimo field." Much of the ground those prospectors staked is now back in front of regulators. The new government can reprice the permit, but not the consent, and on the contested ground of the coast and the north, consent sets the timeline.
Sources
S&P Global Market Intelligence, "Mine Development Times: The U.S. in Perspective," July 18, 2024: https://press.spglobal.com/2024-07-18-United-States-Ranks-Next-to-Last-in-Development-Time-for-New-Mines-that-Produce-Critical-Minerals-for-Energy-Transition,-S-P-Global-Finds
The Canadian Press via Vernon Matters, "Some of the election promises from B.C.'s incoming Conservative government," October 24, 2026: https://vernonmatters.ca/2026/10/24/some-of-the-election-promises-from-b-c-s-incoming-conservative-government/
Sequoia Legal, Gitxaala v. British Columbia (Chief Gold Commissioner), leave to appeal, May 28, 2026: https://sequoialegal.ca/articles/aboriginal-law/2368/
The Narwhal, Fandora exploration permit, June 18, 2026: https://thenarwhal.ca/tofino-gold-mine-permit-imperial-metals/
Ha-Shilth-Sa, Tla-o-qui-aht and Ahousaht on Clayoquot exploration, March 17, 2026: https://www.hashilthsa.com/news/2026-03-17/tla-o-qui-aht-first-nation-says-mineral-exploration-clayoquot-sound-goes-against
The Narwhal, Ehattesaht and Privateer Gold, May 3, 2023: https://thenarwhal.ca/bc-mining-claims-ehattesaht-case/
BC Geological Survey, Information Circular 2025-01, Southwest Region: https://cmscontent.nrs.gov.bc.ca/geoscience/publicationcatalogue/InformationCircular/BCGS_IC2025-01-06.pdf
Chilliwack Progress, Tahltan vote on Eskay Creek agreement, December 16, 2025: https://theprogress.com/2025/12/16/b-c-first-nation-approves-massive-2b-deal-tied-to-gold-mine-restart/
Government of B.C., Red Chris block cave approval, June 19, 2026: https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2026MCM0029-000727
The Northern View, KSM substantial-start review, September 22, 2026: https://thenorthernview.com/2026/09/22/first-nations-say-ksm-review-must-reflect-updated-territorial-understanding/
The Narwhal, Xatśūll First Nation and Mount Polley: https://thenarwhal.ca/xatsull-first-nation-bc-mining-court-challenge/
NOAA, review of The Metals Company USA application, August 19, 2026: https://www.noaa.gov/news-release/noaa-advances-review-of-first-ever-deep-seabed-mining-commercial-recovery-application
Climate Home News, ITLOS orders on the ISA inquiry into NORI and TOML, July 20, 2026: https://climatechangenews.com/2026/07/20/top-maritime-court-rejects-bid-to-halt-un-deep-sea-mining-inquiry
Natural Resources Canada, seabed mining statement, February 9, 2023: https://www.canada.ca/en/natural-resources-canada/news/2023/02/canada-to-refuse-to-permit-seabed-mining-absent-a-rigorous-regulatory-regime.html
Global Affairs Canada, position on seabed mining beyond national jurisdiction, July 2023: https://www.canada.ca/en/global-affairs/news/2023/07/canadas-position-on-seabed-mining-in-areas-beyond-national-jurisdiction.html
Deep Sea Minerals Corp., BCSC-requested clarification, July 27, 2026: https://kalkinemedia.com/ca/news/announcements/deep-sea-minerals-provides-bcsc-mandated-clarification-on-promotional-claims-and-regulatory-filings
Nanaimo Historical Society, interview with A. Fraser Buckham, October 2, 1966: https://www.nanaimoarchives.ca/transcripts-and-recordings/historical-society-transcripts/coal-deposits-on-vancouver-island
Imperial Metals, "Imperial Reports 2025 Financial Results" (Red Chris 30% share and Mount Polley 2025 production, 2026 guidance): https://imperialmetals.com/imperial-reports-2025-financial-results/
Imperial Metals, Red Chris Mine overview (30% joint-venture interest; block cave initial mineral reserve of 8.1 million ounces gold and 2.2 million tonnes copper): https://www.imperialmetals.com/operations/red-chris-mine/overview
Mark Carney on X, congratulations to Lorne Doerkson, October 24, 2026 (9:12 PM PT), as embedded by CityNews Vancouver: https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2026/10/24/bc-conservatives-lorne-doerkson-win-election/
Mark Carney on X, on his call with Premier-designate Lorne Doerkson, October 27, 2026 (5:05 PM PT): https://x.com/MarkJCarney/status/2115233439792161229
Mark Carney on X, on the Ring of Fire road investment, October 27, 2026 (7:34 AM PT): https://x.com/MarkJCarney/status/2115089787296292892
Global News, PMO readout as posted by Lorne Doerkson, October 28, 2026: https://globalnews.ca/news/12124614/bc-premier-designate-lorne-doerkson-province-federal-government-aligned-priorities/
Prime Minister of Canada, first projects referred to the Major Projects Office, September 11, 2025: https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/news-releases/2025/09/11/prime-minister-carney-announces-first-projects-be-reviewed-new and remarks: https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/speeches/2025/09/11/prime-minister-carney-announces-first-projects-be-reviewed-new-major
Prime Minister of Canada, second tranche of projects referred to the Major Projects Office, November 13, 2025: https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/news-releases/2025/11/13/prime-minister-carney-announces-second-tranche-nation-building-projects
Parliament of Canada, LEGISinfo, Bill C-39 (45-1), second reading Vote 178, October 8, 2026: https://www.parl.ca/legisInfo/en/bill/45-1/c-39
CBC News, "New Liberal major projects bill clears first vote, heads to special committee," October 8, 2026: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/bill-c-39-passes-second-reading-9.7374815
Rachel Gilmore on Bluesky, October 8, 2026: https://bsky.app/profile/rachelgilmore.bsky.social/post/3mxfxweelzk2b
Rachel Gilmore on Bluesky, October 28, 2026: https://bsky.app/profile/rachelgilmore.bsky.social/post/3myxaswuths2s
The Canadian Press via CBC News, "Ottawa quietly abandoned its promise to end thermal coal exports, auditor finds," October 29, 2026: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/ag-reports-environment-9.7401079
Transport Canada, "Roberts Bank Terminal 2 listed as a project of national interest to strengthen Canada's trade sovereignty," October 30, 2026: https://www.canada.ca/en/transport-canada/news/2026/10/roberts-bank-terminal-2-listed-as-a-project-of-national-interest-to-strengthen-canadas-trade-sovereignty.html
Strikepoint company data: B.C. projects held by listed companies at development stage, deduplicated, read October 31, 2026.
