New Major Projects Office absorbing existing team already doing much of the same work

OTTAWA — The federal government’s new Calgary-based major projects office to help fast track major infrastructure proposals will absorb a similar division created in Ottawa just over one year ago to do almost the same thing.

The Clean Growth Office launched in July 2024, as a division within the Privy Council Office. It was allocated $9 million in funding over three years, and was mandated to implement a cabinet directive to speed up the government’s decision-making on clean growth projects, referring to proposals for projects that reduce environmental impacts and help mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.

In August, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the creation of the Major Projects Office “to streamline federal approval processes to get major projects built faster.”

Neither Carney nor his office mentioned the existence of the Clean Growth Office, or the fact its work would become part of the new office, which will be based in Calgary.

The Canadian Press began inquiring on the differences between the Clean Growth and the Major Projects Offices last week.

Shortly after those inquiries were made, the web pages describing the work of the Clean Growth Office, and the actual cabinet directive it was mandated to help implement, were removed from government websites. A news release announcing the cabinet directive still remains.

“The Clean Growth Office has been integrated into the Major Projects Office to provide direct support,” Privy Council spokesperson Pierre Cuguen wrote in a statement.

“Under the leadership of Dawn Farrell, CEO of the Major Projects Office, the team will continue its work to help advance major projects referred to the Major Projects Office, and streamline federal regulatory project approvals.”

Cuguen said Carney’s new Major Projects Office, which is still being set up, has a mandate of serving as “a single point of contact” to get nation-building projects built faster.

The new office doesn’t only prioritize clean-growth projects, but rather all projects across government.

“It will identify projects that are in Canada’s national interest and fast track them by creating a single set of conditions, reducing the approval timeline for projects of national interest from a maximum of five years to a maximum of two years,” Cuguen wrote.

The cabinet directive creating the Clean Growth Office also intended to “set out clear federal roles and responsibilities within and across departments with the objective of getting clean growth projects built,” and set out a five-year target for getting impact assessments and federal permits done. The new Major Projects Office aims to do it in two years.

The cabinet directive’s objectives also prioritized predictability to attract clean-growth investment, and reduce burdens on Indigenous groups by co-ordinating Crown consultation processes on the same projects — similar to the “one project, one review” approach, behind the recently-passed Building Canada Act.

The Clean Growth Office also took the lead on providing strategic advice to government departments to implement the cabinet directive and served as the primary point of contact for project proponents, provinces and territories, Indigenous partners and other organizations.

“Canada’s regulatory system must be efficient and quicker — it shouldn’t take over a decade to open a new mine and secure our critical minerals supply chains,” reads a line from the 2024 budget in announcing funding for the Clean Growth Office, which also makes reference to the government’s principle of “one project, one review.”

“One project, one review,” is also the language used by the government to describe the Major Projects Office, including in a statement by Energy Minister Tim Hodgson made the day the office was announced.

“We are making good on our promise to move quickly to unlock private sector investment, provide investor certainty, advance Indigenous reconciliation and protect our environment,” he said on Aug. 29. “The new Major Projects Office will drive this progress, ensuring projects are structured for success via ‘one project, one review’, so we can become an energy and natural resource superpower.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 29, 2025.

Nick Murray, The Canadian Press