Environment Committee on Oct. 27th, 2026

[Patrick Bonin, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

It's the Major Projects Office or the Prime Minister's Office, correct?

[Dawn Farrell]

Well, it's under the PCO. I have a couple of people in the Major Projects Office, but our back office is run under PCO—the clerk's office.

[Patrick Bonin, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

The first national project to be authorized is an oil sands pipeline. This project will be 90% funded by public funds, most of which, probably about $20 billion, will come from the federal government. Have you assessed the risks related to investments? The money being used for this project belongs to all of us, including Quebeckers. Has a market analysis been done? Other than Pembina Pipeline Corporation with their 10% stake, no private company wants to invest in this project.

I want you to explain to me what the national interest is in this project, particularly given that Americans hold a majority stake in these oil and oil sands companies, and that this is supposed to be a national interest project aimed at reducing our dependence on the United States and helping us fight the current tariff war.

[Dawn Farrell]

One of the best things that we can provide you with, Mr. Bonin, is the decision document. Under the Governor in Council decision, there was an explanatory note. It's 38 pages. It lays out all the considerations that we at the Major Projects Office made and advised on, which the GIC then considered in the decision.

In that decision, you'll see that we not only did work but also had third party work, in which we assessed, first of all, the viability of the pipeline as a project of national interest, whether it would be economical.

We assessed the demand and supply for Canadian heavy crude oil from the Asian market. We assessed the differentials that would occur to all Canadians from the revenues that we would receive, because, as you know, when we sell our oil to the United States, we sell it at a deep discount. I think today that is $28. When we sell it to Asia, we sell it at a premium, which today would be $14. There's about a $50 price differential there that we, as a country, lose when we sell our oil to the U.S.

Of course, as you know, the oil sands companies have to provide the oil into the pipeline, and they have to pay the toll, so we assess the economics of the toll and the ability to return the money back to the governments of Alberta and Canada through the investment in the pipeline.

All of that is laid out in our decision document.

[Patrick Bonin, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

In your analysis of the so-called national interest, have you taken into account the fact that oil and oil sands companies are predominantly owned by Americans?

[Dawn Farrell]

No, our analysis is focused on the pipeline and the viability of the pipeline to carry Canadian heavy crude oil, which is owned by Canadians and Albertans, from the oil sands in Alberta through the pipeline to Asia. Therefore, we did not consider that.

[Patrick Bonin, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

Do you know what percentage of oil sands companies are owned by shareholders in the United States?

[Dawn Farrell]

I don't have that information with me, no.

[Patrick Bonin, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

All right.

[The Chair, Liberal, Shannon Miedema]

Next is Mr. Bexte for five minutes.

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you for joining us today, Ms. Farrell and staff. I appreciate your time. I hope we can get some clarity and transparency on what you've been up to and what's been going on. We live in interesting times.

[Dawn Farrell]

We're living the dream.

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

As I understand it, the Pacific link pipeline is the first project to be designated as being in the national interest. Is that correct?

[Dawn Farrell]

Yes, that's correct.

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

This pipeline was first referred to your office in July. Can you explain why your office needed three months to get to the next step?

[Dawn Farrell]

Oh, boy. Why did we need three months? Do you think that's too long?

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Of course.

[Dawn Farrell]

Okay.

Well, first of all, we received the document on July 2. We had to run a consultation with 130 first nations. That required us to get notices to the first nations, get them signed up for capacity funding, get teams out in the field to meet with them and make sure that we recorded their concerns and understood what they all were, because that was a component of the advice that we had to give.

As you know, one of the components under the Building Canada Act is to assess whether there's economic value for first nations in the project, so we had to assess all of that. We had to take the—

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

A lot of things were done. You had a lot of stuff jammed into three months.

[Dawn Farrell]

Yes. We did a ton of work, more work than I've done in my career of 40 years.

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Are a bunch of approvals still to be gathered before construction can start?

[Dawn Farrell]

The way the Building Canada Act works is that now that the project is listed under the act, under our office we create a process to create one conditions document, one approval document with conditions. We have to effectively look at all the issues that go along with the pipeline, make sure we understand the route, make sure we understand the issues with rights holders—

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

I appreciate that, but then who approves it next? Is it cabinet?

[Dawn Farrell]

Yes. We recommend that to the one Canadian economy minister, Minister LeBlanc, who then takes it to cabinet. He approves the final conditions document.

[David Bexte, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

The converse, then, is that something that you approve, cabinet could veto or cabinet could approve.