MPO's Silence on Progress Sparks Criticism

The Major Projects Office (MPO), established by Prime Minister Mark Carney to accelerate nation-building projects, is facing criticism for its lack of transparency.

The MPO was set up last summer with a goal of reducing the approval timeline for projects of national interest to two years or less. However, 17 projects currently on its desk are experiencing delays and little progress has been reported by the office or the federal government.

One of these projects is the $16.5-billion Alberta Pathways Project, which aims to create low-carbon oil exports from the Alberta oil sands. Despite being in the evaluation-and-approval process for over a year, there have been no progress reports from Alberta or the MPO.