By Bob Weber
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Major Projects Office is now six months old, just a baby in government years. But those gathered around the newborn’s crib already have plenty of ideas on how they’d like the infant to grow up.
Some look for an umpire—a neutral agency that simply evaluates big proposals and advises cabinet. “I hope they want someone who’s there to call balls and strikes,” Andrew Leach, an energy and environmental economist at the University of Alberta, told The Energy Mix. He said the MPO’s role should be to advance such projects, but also to ensure proponents have covered the environmental and consultation bases.
“You want someone in the room that when a company comes in and says, ‘Our project’s just not moving forward,’ (asks) ‘Have you done the work right?’” Others want something more activist, pushing projects that further decarbonization, such as linking interprovincial electricity grids. “It needs to be a ramp up for renewable energy projects,” said Mark Kalegha, energy finance analyst at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. “Interconnectedness seems to be on their priority list and the MPO is able to help with the regulatory hurdles.”
A giant lab on regulatory reform would be welcome, say some. “What we’re hoping comes out of the Major Projects Office is learnings on how to accelerate reviews and processes without denuding them or making them any less stringent,” said Fernando Melo, public affairs director with the Canadian Renewable Energy Association (CanREA). “I’ve been out to many a project site where you ask, ‘How many permits are you filing?’ and the answer comes ‘Oh, five or ten’ … And I go, ‘One field.’” Read more.