If the federal government’s goal was to show Canadians it’s serious about cutting red tape and getting housing and infrastructure off the ground faster, someone forgot to send the memo to reality.
In recent weeks, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s administration unveiled two shiny new government offices, the Major Projects Office (MPO) and Build Canada Homes.
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The announcements, we’re told, are meant to “streamline approvals” and speed up construction.
In practice? Ottawa has created two new layers of bureaucracy and awarded one of the highest-paid public sector jobs to a former Trans Mountain board member, paying more than half a million dollars a year to oversee a “streamlined” office.
Irony is in full attendance. The MPO’s first five projects, those lucky enough to receive the fast-track treatment, include LNG expansions, port upgrades, nuclear energy, wind power and critical mineral developments. Oil pipelines, the lifeblood of Alberta’s economy, are nowhere on the list. Not a single one.
Even Alberta’s famously anti-Ottawa premier, Danielle Smith, seems unbothered.
After meeting Carney, she called the discussions “optimistic,” praising progress despite the absence of pipelines.
Her sudden calm stands in stark contrast to the frustration felt by local Conservatives and industry leaders, raising questions about whether political optics are taking precedence over Alberta’s real energy needs.
I recently spoke with Conservative Lakeland MP Shannon Stubbs, who dismissed Ottawa’s promises as mostly talk. She noted efforts to enshrine a two-year timeline for project approvals were blocked, projects on the national list could still be removed at any time, and Indigenous consultation remains limited.
Stubbs also warned these gaps are slowing approvals.
Meanwhile, the promised “streamlining” appears to be more akin to a corporate-sized paycheque, with a focus on energy projects that may not have the desired impact and increased Ottawa oversight rather than less.
Many in Western Canada are left asking, is this about action, or optics? Affordable housing, or bureaucratic pageantry? And if Carney really wants to streamline the process, why are the projects that matter most, such as the oil pipelines, homes and infrastructure that keep the economy humming, still only promises on paper?
Ottawa, it seems, is busy building offices while Canadians wait for results.
If this is progress, someone forgot to tell the people on the ground.
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