Ottawa, ON – Shannon Stubbs, Conservative Shadow Minister for Energy and Natural Resources, released the following statement on recent committee testimony about the Major Projects Office (MPO):
“As Canadians voted in 2025, Prime Minister Mark Carney promised to get building at incredible speeds. A year later, what Canadians got was the lowest investment per worker, the second-worst productivity and the second-highest unemployment in the G7.
“On Tuesday, Conservative MPs questioned Minister Dominic LeBlanc and CEO Dawn Farrell on the lack of results from Carney’s Major Project Office. Eight months after the MPO was established, 275 projects have been submitted, but not a single one has been designated as being in Canada’s national interest – something LeBlanc puzzlingly called ‘good news’.
“Even more baffling, five months after Carney’s much-vaunted Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Alberta, neither LeBlanc nor Farrell would confirm whether the Prime Minister considers a pipeline to the Pacific to be in the national interest. This made clear that the Liberals are far from serious on delivering a pipeline, and doubly damning considering that the Prime Minister himself promised it.
“This week’s testimony also raised questions around proper oversight of the MPO’s activities. Farrell failed to explain how staff seconded from the private sector are shielded from potential conflicts of interest or prevented from having their salaries topped up by their previous employer. She also revealed that Canadian ownership of a project does not factor into the Office’s recommendations, while LeBlanc was unaware of the fact that Chinese and other foreign state-owned enterprises have stakes in projects referred to the MPO. This despite the fact that the Building Canada Act requires the Minister himself to review investments from hostile countries in national interest projects.
“Conservatives are focused on building real economic growth without more bureaucracy and red tape, through affordable and abundant energy, low inflation and taxes, free market competition, and national self-reliance. That way Canada can be strong and affordable at home for unbreakable leverage abroad.”