Dawn Farrell, head of Ottawa's Major Projects Office, speaks at an event announcing the office's first five infrastructure projects in Edmonton in September.AMBER BRACKEN/The Canadian Press
Ottawa’s Major Projects Office is ramping up the hiring of senior staff, bringing on a chief investment officer who will oversee a growing roster of infrastructure and resource-development proposals and also naming sector heads for energy and electricity.
Kelsen Vallee, a former investment banker at CIBC World Markets, will serve as the MPO’s chief investment officer and will also oversee energy projects. He is joined by Michelle Chislett, a renewable-energy executive, who will lead the office’s electricity portfolio.
The Major Projects Office is a signature initiative of Prime Minister Mark Carney, who wants to cut red tape and approve projects that are perceived to be of national importance, a goal that dovetails with his campaign promise to reduce Canada’s economic reliance on the United States amid President Donald Trump’s trade war.
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The Calgary-based office launched in August and is run by chief executive officer Dawn Farrell, who previously led TransAlta Corp. and the Trans Mountain pipeline system.
Mr. Vallee, the new CIO, was previously a managing director at CIBC World Markets in Calgary, and co-ran the investment bank’s energy, infrastructure and transition (EIT) team. The EIT group was set up in 2021 shortly after Joe Biden was elected U.S. president and investment banks globally were reorganizing themselves to advise clients on transitioning to a lower carbon future. Before that, Mr. Vallee worked for CIBC’s infrastructure team.
Ms. Chislett, who will oversee the electricity portfolio, was most recently an executive vice-president at Northland Power Inc. NPI-T, known for its growing renewable-power portfolio. Ms. Chislett has previously been the chair of the Canadian Solar Industries Association and her latest role at Northland Power gave her oversight of the company’s onshore renewable-energy projects.
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Since its August launch, the Major Projects Office has announced two rounds of initiatives that it will support – the last batch of which were unveiled Thursday.
The first projects to be reviewed for fast-track approval are: LNG Canada Phase 2, which would expand the liquefied natural gas export facility at Kitimat, B.C.; modular reactors at Ontario’s existing Darlington Nuclear Generating Station; an expansion by the Port of Montreal in Contrecoeur, Que.; Saskatchewan’s Foran McIlvenna Bay copper mine project; and the Red Chris Copper and Gold Mine expansion in B.C.
This week, Mr. Carney announced six more: Northcliff Resources’ Sisson Mine in New Brunswick; Canada Nickel’s Crawford Project in Ontario; the Ksi Lisims LNG Project in B.C.; Iqaluit’s Nukkiksautiit Hydro Project; Nouveau Monde Graphite’s Matawinie Mine in Quebec; and BC Hydro’s North Coast Transmission Line.
Although the MPO is based in Calgary, the federal government has said it will add offices in other major Canadian cities. The office’s mandate is to serve as a single point of contact to fast-track nation-building projects by streamlining and accelerating regulatory-approval processes and also helping to structure and co-ordinate financing of these projects.
“For too long, the construction of major infrastructure has been stalled by arduous, inefficient approval processes, leaving enormous investments on the table,” the government said in a statement when the office launched.