Whereas the Province administers and processes Water Sustainability Act Section 11 Change Approvals Change Approvals to authorize users to make complex changes in and about a stream; And whereas the Province no longer commits to completing Change Approval reviews within 140 days of receipt of the application, causing excessive delays that result in increased project costs, missed funding opportunities and uncertainty in project timelines: Therefore be it resolved that the Province must re-commit to processing Change Approvals within 140 days of receipt; And be it further resolved that the Province provide adequate funding and staffing to fulfill the target review period of 140 days.
Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development Government acknowledges and thanks local governments for their continued interests in supporting improved service delivery, identifying cost-saving efficiencies and helping to protect the provinces waterways. Government recognises the length of time currently required to complete Water Sustainability Act WSA authorizations can be challenging for business to plan and effectively mobilize resources. The Ministry strives to deliver all authorizations within predictable and reasonable timeframes. To improve decision timelines, the Ministry has implemented a number of significant business process changes and streamlined service delivery. In addition, staff are being re-allocated from other program areas, and across regional boundaries, in order to support these processes and changes. Application packages are reviewed based on the date a complete application submission package is received, with due consideration given to potential adverse public safety and environmental risks. Ongoing work on licencing improvement practices and the collection of supporting hydrometric and physical data will also improve the rate at which applications are reviewed and evaluated resulting in faster decisions. In addition, the time required for a file to be reviewed and move forward to decision depends on the nature of the works including potential environmental impacts, First Nations interests and stakeholder interests and the quality and completeness of the received application package. Additional guidance has recently been publicly posted to clarify expectations for package submission. In part due to a robust business climate, an unprecedented number of applications for WSA Approvals was received in 2019. The Ministry has completed a record number of WSA authorizations in the 201920 fiscal year, including but not limited to, s.11 WSA Change Approvals.