Evidence of meeting #52 for Environment and Sustainable Development in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was process.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Shannon Stubbs Conservative Lakeland, AB
This is why there must be transparency and accountability for Canadians.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Shannon Miedema
Thank you very much.
Our last set of questions will be from Mr. Watchorn for five minutes, please.
Liberal
Tim Watchorn Liberal Les Pays-d'en-Haut, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I thank the witnesses for joining us.
Ms. Farrell, you know that before coming to Ottawa, I was a small-town mayor. Just to change a culvert would require the approval of the Transportation Department, the Department of the Environment, the Department of Municipal Affairs, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and so on.
I find that an office such as the Major Projects Office is extremely useful when you want to move large-scale projects forward, as even a small project such as replacing a culvert can become extremely complicated.
There have been some exciting announcements and there are projects under way in Quebec, including the Contrecoeur terminal and Nouveau Monde Graphite's Matawinie mine. I'd like you to explain exactly what role the Major Projects Office plays in getting these projects off the ground.
Chief Executive Officer, Major Projects Office
For Contrecoeur, our first role was to help the Contrecoeur management team secure the funding they needed to get the project up and running. Of course, we got that done. They finished up their project and they are now under construction.
Our office has a project management group inside of it. We connect with the project group at Contrecoeur and provide them with whatever support they need. If there are any issues that emerge, we troubleshoot whatever we can so that we can help them ensure that the construction gets completed and is on time and on budget. As you know, that Contrecoeur port will be very important for Montreal and Quebec.
With Nouveau Monde Graphite, they needed to ensure that they had contracts for that graphite. We helped them secure some final contracts through the government for the graphite so that we could make sure that they could be financed. We also helped them secure financing and close the financing with various public entities such that they went to the market and raised equity for that project, which gave them all the money they needed.
They've now started the construction of that mine. We stay in touch with them to make sure that they have what they need as they're constructing.
They are going to build a refining project at Bécancour so that a quarter of the graphite will be refined for markets with their customers. This is really exciting, because it means that we're upgrading graphite. As you know, that's a natural form of graphite. It's one of the only natural forms in North America, so it's extremely important. We're helping them get organized around the final permitting and financing for the refinery part of that project.
We're also hoping to get more projects from Quebec, so we'd like you to find some more for us.
Liberal
Tim Watchorn Liberal Les Pays-d'en-Haut, QC
Thank you very much. We will definitely find you more. There is one under development that is very important to us, which is the high-speed train project Alto. I'd like to know what your current role at Alto is to help advance the project and ensure delivery within the agreed time frame.
Chief Executive Officer, Major Projects Office
That project is a strategy under our office and is mostly run under the Department of Transport. I work closely with the Minister of Transport because a lot of our projects are ports, highways, trains and stuff that he needs.
As you know, Alto has its own organization. The Department of Transport oversees it. Our project management office has a senior executive with 40 years of experience in construction projects. He sits on a couple of those Alto committees and he provides advice as they're getting ready to see if they're going to turn that project into a construction project.
Liberal
Tim Watchorn Liberal Les Pays-d'en-Haut, QC
Thank you very much.
Just for clarification, you talked about consultations with indigenous peoples. I was impressed to hear that you managed to finish consultations on the previously announced project in three months. Explain to us how you make it work and how you ensure consultations are truly legitimate and understood by those consulted.
Chief Executive Officer, Major Projects Office
Well, that was a tall order. It was a lot of work to pull that team together. Thanks to my two colleagues on the phone here, each with 40 years of experience in this field, plus some of my experience, we quickly got teams in place, quickly got capacity payments to first nations, quickly got into meetings with first nations—both technical meetings like this online and people out in the field meeting with them. We got everything consolidated so that we had all the input and the information.
I think first nations are a bit frustrated with this process because they are worried about not having enough information at the front end, but they also, at the same time, want to be involved early with projects. They're learning, and we're learning together how to do that. I'm really impressed with the first nations that we've been working with, and I think we'll go a long way there.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Shannon Miedema
Thank you very much.
We still have 11 minutes, so we'll do a lightning third round of three minutes instead of five and two minutes instead of two and a half, and then we'll do the full third round. We'll have two sets of Conservative Party questions, two from the Liberals and one from the Bloc.
We will begin with Mr. Leslie, for three minutes, please.
Conservative
Branden Leslie Conservative Portage—Lisgar, MB
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Ms. Farrell, you directly tied, as it was in the MOU, the Pathways project with the Pacific link pipeline, at least in terms of the emissions reduction analysis. Can one be built while the other is not? I mean, can you approve and start construction on the pipeline without, at minimum, approving the Pathways project and/or at least starting construction?
Chief Executive Officer, Major Projects Office
Remember that there's an MOU with the oil and gas industry to come to a conclusion about their commitment through final agreements to build Pathways, and those final agreements are being negotiated as we speak and are imminently due. Once those agreements are in place, you'll see that the Pathways project will be under way. We'll be going to its next phase in Alberta, because it's an Alberta-regulated project.
October 27th, 2026 / 4:20 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Major Projects Office
Just let me finish. With our pipeline, with the one that's in the Major Projects Office, we're currently under the process in which we're going to do a conditions document. If Pathways wasn't going to be under way, it would have to be a condition—in our minds—of the final conditions document that the Pathways project would be built in order for the project to go ahead.
Chief Executive Officer, Major Projects Office
That's what the conditions phase is for.
Conservative
Branden Leslie Conservative Portage—Lisgar, MB
Thank you for that.
Does cabinet have a veto over those conditions, ultimately? You can make that as a recommendation, but can cabinet say, “No, in fact, never mind. We don't need to build the Pathways project. Go ahead with the pipeline”?
Chief Executive Officer, Major Projects Office
Well, given that the Prime Minister is the one who's very determined to have Pathways, I'm not sure why that would happen, but certainly, cabinet...it's at their discretion. They make the decision.
Conservative
Branden Leslie Conservative Portage—Lisgar, MB
Who's [Technical difficulty—Editor] Pathways...?
Where is the financing coming from? How much is going to be public? I think that's what Canadians want to know. It's all fine and dandy to tie these two projects together, but when private sector is saying, “Oh, this is pretty expensive. We maybe want to weasel out of this at the end of the day”, how much are taxpayers likely to be on the hook for? When will we know that number for a truthful final decision on both of these projects, if they are so interconnected?
Chief Executive Officer, Major Projects Office
The proponents for Pathways are the five companies under the Oil Sands Alliance, and it will be up to them to disclose the money that they're going to put into Pathways when they decide to build it.
Conservative
Branden Leslie Conservative Portage—Lisgar, MB
Okay. I'll go back to the seconding of employees. Why do you think private sector companies are sending you their employees and paying half their salary? Is this out of the goodness of their hearts?
Chief Executive Officer, Major Projects Office
Well, it's because I'm asking them to. When we phone companies and say, “We need someone who is a specialist in finance. We need to evaluate the financing of a large, $40-billion pipeline, and we want to make sure we do it right. Can you give us a young person—”
Conservative
Branden Leslie Conservative Portage—Lisgar, MB
[Inaudible—Editor] now or in the future.... You could see, as a private sector company—
Conservative
Branden Leslie Conservative Portage—Lisgar, MB
—some value in this, having an opportunity to have influence now or in the future.