Ottawa releases list of private-sector staff seconded to major projects office

OTTAWA · The federal government has published a list of 41 employees seconded to its major projects office from private companies and other governments. The list was released Tuesday after months of pressure from opposition MPs who raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest. The office's mandate is to improve project reviews and accelerate construction starts. Federal Energy Minister Tim Hodgson had previously accused opposition MPs of peddling "conspiracy theories" when asked to reveal the information.

The roster includes staff from major banks, with one employee from the Bank of Montreal, two from RBC and one from Scotiabank. It also lists four staffers from the Yukon government and one each from the governments of British Columbia and the Northwest Territories. Employees have been seconded from energy and infrastructure firms like ATCO EnPower, TC Energy, TransAlta Corporation and Pembina Pipeline Corporation. The list also includes staff from railways CN and CPKC, mining company BHP Canada, law firm Torys, accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers and financial company QSI Finance Canada.

Federal agencies have also loaned staff to the office, including nine employees from the Canada Energy Regulator. Two staff members are from the Trans Mountain Corporation, and one each from the RCMP, the Canada Revenue Agency and the Canada Development Investment Corporation. Opposition scrutiny intensified after a report that the office was recruiting from Bay Street. Officials have stated the government has run an interchange program since the 1970s to bring in private-sector expertise, with the government reimbursing employers for part of the seconded employees' salaries.

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Major projects office CEO Dawn Farrell told a parliamentary committee last month that all employees are cleared of conflicts. She said senior officials consult the ethics commissioner, while others are vetted by human resources in the Privy Council Office. "There are no conflicts of interest with these employees," Farrell said in response to Conservative MP Branden Leslie. "It's all been cleared. It's all been cleared. We clear every single employee, and they have to sign disclosures, and they have to disclose which areas where they might be conflicted, and they cannot work on any projects where there are conflicts."

Bloc Québécois MP Patrick Bonin said the list confirms his concerns that staff from the energy regulator and oil companies are skewing the office's priorities. He made the comments to The Canadian Press from the COP31 climate conference in Turkey. "We're left with a government that chose to hide the fact that oil and gas companies literally have their hand in the Canadian state," Bonin said in French. "At the core of this (major projects office) is the largest oil and gas lobbyists in Canada, who already had no credibility. A five-year-old would understand at which point there's the appearance of a conflict of interest."

A conflict of interest framework for the office, shared by a senior government source, states its policies follow the Treasury Board Secretariat's rules requiring disclosure. It also mandates employees to "protect non-public Government of Canada information." A spokesperson for Intergovernmental Minister Dominic LeBlanc said in a statement the government has "full confidence" in these standards. The spokesperson noted the Build Canada Exchange Program has operated for over 50 years to attract Canadians with diverse skills to contribute to government work.

With files from The Canadian Press, BNN Bloomberg and CityNews