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In addition to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s support, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, a longtime critic of the Liberal government, said Farrell was someone she personally counted as an adviser and was the right person for the job. The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers called her the 鈥渋deal candidate.鈥� While Goldy Hyder, president and CEO of the Business Council, said her experience makes her “indispensable.”

But despite the warm words for Farrell, there is skepticism about just what the new role can and should do. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has called the projects office just more bureaucracy. In Doug Ford’s Ontario, the province branded the first round of projects easy pickings and said the Carney government could do much more to benefit the province.听

Still, the success of the projects office is a key part of Carney’s agenda and Farrell has not downplayed just how much is expected from her.听Speeding up projects and finding new ways to fund them are top of mind and Farrell听鈥� who declined an interview with the Star 鈥� has听said that under her, the office will streamline decisions and renew international investors’ confidence in Canada.听

鈥淭o get to one project, one review, one decision in a two-year time frame will set Canada apart globally and will attract enormous inflows of capital,鈥� she said at a press conference where Carney announced the MPO’s first five projects.听

Those first five projects include the second phase of LNG Canada, a massive liquefied natural gas export terminal, an expansion of the Port of Montreal, a fleet of small modular nuclear reactors in Ontario and two new mines. All of those projects have largely made it through the regulatory process, with Ontario already building one of the reactors.

But Carney also put another six projects on Farrell’s to-do list, projects that in some cases are little more than an idea. They include Wind West, a massive wind power project in Nova Scotia, a critical minerals strategy for Canada, a new corridor to the Arctic and a new port in Churchill, Manitoba as well as a massive carbon capture project and high-speed rail between Quebec City and Toronto. Carney also promised more projects would be announced before November. 听

A source in Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s office, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said they support Farrell’s appointment, but the first list of “nation-building” projects was low-hanging fruit. The question now is what the federal government will do to advance big projects that haven’t already been approved.听

“It is still unclear to us what the benefit of being a ‘nation-building’ project is,” the source said.听听

Ford publicly released a list of the projects he wanted boosted earlier this summer and while it includes the small modular reactors, Ontario also wanted support for large-scale nuclear facilities the province is planning. Ontario was also seeking support for a new road to the Ring of Fire 鈥� a mineral-rich area in the province’s far north 鈥� GO train expansion and a tunnel under the 401.听

Carney and Ford have met often in the past few months, have a chummy relationship and speak highly of each other. The Ford source said, as a result, they expected Ontario would have more projects on the list.听听

“There is a bit of a gap between that private enthusiasm and their public commitments,” the source said.听

The Ford source said in particular, they had hoped for news the federal government would help with the Ring of Fire access road, by simply accepting a provincial environmental assessment and ending a parallel federal process.听听

“What we need for them is to get out of the way,” they said. Ford said this week he expects the Ring of Fire Road to be in Carney’s next round of projects.

While Carney and Liberal cabinet ministers have talked about a “one project, one review process,” getting there is a slow process. On Friday, the federal government opened a one-month comment period on a paper outlining how “one project, one review” could work and promised more consultation before signing individual agreements with every province.听

Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston, whose Wind West project made the long list of projects, said his expectation of Farrell and the MPO is听they will help push projects into reality.听听

“The federal government has indicated that the projects office will work closely and urgently with Nova Scotia on advancing the project,” he said.听

The proposal for Wind West would include billions of dollars spent on new offshore turbines and power lines connecting that power to Canada and the U.S. Nova Scotia has proposed that the use of generous tax credits and financing from the Canada Infrastructure Bank could make the project happen.听Houston said it could not only keep prices stable at home, but make the province a clean-energy superpower.听

“The economic activity that this will generate for our province, tens of billions of dollars to build the transmission lines, tens of billions of dollars to build generation, that is all economic activity, that is thousands of jobs across every type of profession,” he said.听听

But when Carney announced the five projects, Poilievre said the prime minister had done nothing more than 鈥渟end an email to an office that isn鈥檛 even fully staffed up yet.鈥�

Pierre-Alain Bujold, a spokesperson for the Privy Council Office, which is supporting Farrell, confirmed the MPO is in temporary Calgary accommodations.

鈥淭o ensure that the MPO could begin work without delay, a temporary office space has been made available while a permanent location is being identified,鈥� he said in an email.

Farrell said her vision for the office was a 鈥渟mall team with big reach,鈥� which Bujold confirmed she is in the process of hiring.

鈥淭he CEO is assembling her team of experts with extensive private and public sector experience in the fields of finance, project management, risk management, regulatory processes and consultation with Indigenous Peoples,鈥� he said.

Farrell comes to the MPO after a long career in the energy industry, including as CEO of TransAlta, a major Alberta power company. She led the company at a time when the use of coal as a power source was being phased out, which the Alberta NDP government of the time accelerated.听

Marg McCuaig-Boyd, who was then energy minister, said Farrell handled the coal phase out pragmatically and was good to work with.听

“The prime minister did a good job picking her, because she’s very good at bringing people together and working on a common cause.”

After leaving Transalta, Farrell led the $34 billion Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.听

Ian Anderson, who preceded her in that role, said she was the right choice to finish the pipeline.听

“She certainly understands what it takes to execute major projects in this country, so if those are the traits one would think would be useful for that position, then she certainly has those in spades,” he said.听

Anderson headed up the pipeline project when regulatory problems caused delays. He said the government got a perspective on the regulatory process as a project owner during that time and he hopes they have learned something.听

“I have to believe there’s enough people left within government who were around for Trans Mountain that must have learned and observed and saw the numerous regulatory, legal obstacles that were thrust in front of us.”