Part of the Ontario construction contracts guide for owners.
Ontario’s Building Ontario Faster Act, 2026 (Bill 140) passed first reading on October 27 with a headline promise: nearly 220,000 fewer days spent waiting on permits and approvals. Owners should welcome it, and then leave it out of their schedules until the details are real.
What happened
On October 27, the province introduced Bill 140, the Building Ontario Faster Act, 2026, and it passed first reading. It is not law yet. The government estimates the package could remove nearly 220,000 days of combined processing time that businesses now spend on permits and approvals.
The bill sits inside a wider review of all 375 business-facing provincial permits over three years. The goal is to eliminate, streamline or transform 35% to 50% of them by the end of 2028. The province says 51% were reviewed in the first year, and that 65% of those were eliminated, streamlined or transformed.
The measures closest to construction:
- Archaeological approval timelines cut by up to 80%.
- A digital map of underground infrastructure for project teams.
- Modernized heritage approvals.
- For the Highway 69 expansion between Parry Sound and Sudbury, a project-specific assessment would replace the Environmental Assessment Act process, and early works such as clearing and bridge work could start before it ends. The province says this could cut construction timelines by up to five years.
- Fewer barriers for workers in regulated professions who are already qualified elsewhere in Canada.
Public comments on the Highway 69 and landfill proposals are open on the Environmental Registry until November 26, 2026. The government positions the package alongside its $236-billion capital plan.
View the data
| Measure | Permits |
|---|---|
| All business-facing permits | 375 |
| Reviewed in year one (51%) | ≈191 |
| Cut, streamlined or changed | ≈124 |
| 2028 target, low end (35%) | ≈131 |
| 2028 target, high end (50%) | ≈188 |
What it means for owners
220,000 days is a total, not a schedule. The figure adds up processing time across many applications and many businesses. It says nothing about your critical path. One project might save weeks on a single approval, or nothing at all if its longest path runs through municipal site plan approval, a utility connection or a long-lead transformer. Don’t let anyone shorten a baseline on the strength of a headline.
Archaeology is the one to watch in the GTA. On greenfield and many infill sites, archaeological assessment and clearance sit early on the critical path, ahead of site plan approval and excavation. If the 80% cut is delivered, it is a real gain you can schedule, but only once the rules and service standards are published. Until then, it is an opportunity, not a date.
Better underground data is a risk issue, not just a speed issue. Unknown and mislocated utilities are a classic source of differing site condition claims and excavation delays. A provincial digital map could reduce that risk, but its value depends on how complete and accurate the underlying records are. Owners should not push more subsurface risk onto contractors just because a map exists.
The contrarian read: faster approvals can raise costs in the short run. When more projects clear approvals sooner, they compete for the same trades, heavy civil crews and materials. Faster permits pull demand forward; they don’t add workers. The labour mobility measures help at the margin, not at scale.
The bill can still change. First reading is the start. Bills are often amended in committee, and the parts that matter most to owners, such as service standards and how applications already in the system are treated, usually arrive later in regulations.
View the data
| Date | Milestone |
|---|---|
| Oct 27, 2026 | Bill 140 passes first reading |
| Nov 26, 2026 | Registry comments close (Hwy 69, landfills) |
| To come | Committee, regulations and service standards (no dates yet) |
| End of 2028 | Permit review target date |
What to do now
- Hold your baselines. Schedule approvals at the durations you actually see today. Carry any potential savings as an opportunity in your risk register, not as a schedule assumption.
- List your provincial approvals. For each project, note every provincial permit on the path to construction (archaeology, heritage, environmental) and flag which ones the bill touches. That is where the upside is.
- Start archaeology early anyway. Commission assessment work at acquisition or concept stage, so a faster clearance actually lands when you need it. Our Toronto permit timeline guide shows where it fits.
- Don’t rewrite subsurface risk yet. Keep your subsurface investigation scope and differing site condition clauses as they are until the map’s coverage and accuracy are known.
- Price for trade competition. If your tender lands in 2027 alongside a wave of newly approved public work, test your escalation and contingency against a tighter trade market.
FAQ
What is the Building Ontario Faster Act, 2026?
Bill 140 is an Ontario bill introduced on October 27, 2026 to speed up provincial permits and approvals. The province estimates it could remove nearly 220,000 days of combined processing time. It passed first reading and is not yet law.
Will Bill 140 shorten my construction schedule?
Possibly, for projects that need in-scope provincial approvals such as archaeological clearance, which the province says could be up to 80% faster. Owners should keep current durations in their baselines until the regulations and service standards are published.
The bottom line
Bill 140 points the right way: fewer, faster provincial approvals help every owner who builds in Ontario. But savings counted in combined days are not savings on your project until the rules are final and an approval actually comes back sooner. Want a second look at how approvals sit on your critical path? Book a 30-minute call.
Sources: NetNewsLedger, Ontario proposes permit reforms (October 28, 2026); NetNewsLedger, What Ontario’s permit reforms could mean for mining and highway construction (October 28, 2026); Wire Service Canada, Ontario proposes cutting 220,000 days from permit processing (October 28, 2026); The Sydenham Current, Ontario bill would cut permit processing times (October 30, 2026). Cover photo: Surinder Singh on Unsplash (Unsplash Licence). Permit counts in the chart are our calculations from the reported percentages.