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.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Shannon Miedema
Your time is up, Mr. Leslie. Thank you very much.
We will now go to Mr. Malette for three minutes.
Liberal
Chris Malette Liberal Bay of Quinte, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair.
My question is very brief and to the point. It's allowing Ms. Farrell to finish the answer that she was giving to my friend, Mr. Leslie, some time ago when he was asking about employees paid by industry.
I believe, Ms. Farrell, you were attempting to answer that question but didn't get the chance to fully expand on your point. Would you like to do that now?
Chief Executive Officer, Major Projects Office
We have a mix of employees whom we've seconded from the government departments, who are policy and regulatory specialists. We also have employees who are seconded from business and are specialists in things like pipelines and trains. Transparently, we have three layers in the MPO: old people, middle-aged people and young people. We endeavour to have all three layers of those people working together on various projects so that we can build Canada. We work here because we all share one thing: we are very purposeful about wanting to take our time to build Canada.
Anybody's kid who gets a chance to work in the Major Projects Office, even for six months or a year, benefits by seeing how Canada works. They benefit by seeing what it looks like in government to be a public servant and what the issues are that you have to address. The public servants are seeing what it looks like to do the financial analysis, the technical analysis, all the analysis required to make sure that a project is financially viable, that it should be done and that it will create cash flow for 50 years.
It's a unique experience for employees. Employees are highly ethical, and they would not, in any way, ever want to embarrass this country. They wouldn't ever want to do something they thought was unethical, because we all came here for one thing: to build Canada.
Liberal
Chris Malette Liberal Bay of Quinte, ON
Thank you very much, Ms. Farrell.
Quickly, with your past and extensive experience in the business world, are you finding that this model is working?
October 27th, 2026 / 4:30 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Major Projects Office
Oh, I love this model. I think it's working.
The only thing is that employees have to go back to their companies, and I'm usually begging them to stay. Cycling people through the office can be a bit hard to manage. However, net-net, for me—an old, washed-up person trying to do something well for this country—having the opportunity to work with some of our young and mid-career people, who are super smart and who want this country to work, is a fantastic experience.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Shannon Miedema
Thank you so much, Mr. Malette.
Thank you very much, Ms. Farrell and team, for giving us an hour today.
We are now going to suspend briefly so we can go to committee business.
[Proceedings continue in camera]
