A federal document released Tuesday lists 41 employees seconded to the major projects office, including staff from the Yukon and the Northwest Territories as well as private-sector firms.
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A federal document released Tuesday lists 41 employees who have been seconded to the federal major projects office, as Ottawa tries to improve Canada’s review process and move major projects forward faster.
The major projects office seconded employees from a range of organizations, including banks, oil and gas companies and mining firms, according to the list.
The list includes four staffers from the Yukon government and one each from the governments of British Columbia and the Northwest Territories.
Among the private-sector organizations listed as lending employees are ATCO EnPower, railways CN and CPKC, mining company BHP Canada, Ledcor, the Pembina Pipeline Corp., TC Energy, the TransAlta Corp., Torys law firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers and QSI Finance Canada.
Federal institutions also have staff on loan to the office, including nine from the Canada Energy Regulator, two from Trans Mountain Corp., and one each from the RCMP, the Canada Revenue Agency and the Canada Development Investment Corp.
The federal government released the list after it initially balked at making the information public, following pressure from Conservative and Bloc Québécois MPs who said they were concerned about potential conflicts of interest.
Energy Minister Tim Hodgson had previously accused opposition MPs of peddling “conspiracy theories” when asked to reveal the list.
Major projects office CEO Dawn Farrell told MPs at a House of Commons committee meeting last month that employees are cleared through human resources in the Privy Council Office and have to sign disclosures and cannot work on projects where there are conflicts, according to her remarks.
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