The federal Major Projects Office (MPO) counts now some 77 employees, according to the department directory.

That includes some of the more senior roles iPolitics reported on last December, including Chief Investment Officer Kelsen Vallee, Vice-President Justin Ferbey, Electricity lead Michelle Chislett, and Intergovernmental Affairs specialist Louise Baird. 

The listing includes more junior roles spread across six departments, including those working in project management, Indigenous relations, regulatory and strategy teams. 

The Privy Council Office, which supports the MPO, has previously stated that the goal is to “recruit top-level expertise to help get major projects built at speeds not seen in generations.”

Previous reporting by the Globe and Mail suggested the MPO was asking companies to consider “topping up” the pay of employees on a secondment with the government agency, raising ethical questions.

The latest listing on the directory, however, suggests the majority of employees currently working for the MPO were shuffled in from other federal departments, especially the Privy Council Office, Impact Assessment Agency, Environment and Climate Change, and Natural Resources. 

A dozen or so are coming in from the private sector and have ties or experience with investment banking teams at RBC Capital Markets, TD Securities, J.P. Morgan, Scotiabank, BMO Financial Group, and CIBC World Markets.

Some have also recently finished work with major resource and transport companies, including Rio Tinto, Enbridge, Trans Mountain, TC Energy, Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) and TransAlta.

READ MORE: Who works for the Major Projects Office?

Most of the staff are based in Calgary and Ottawa, with some in Toronto and Vancouver. 

The federal government has allocated some $200 million to support the MPO, with $47 million set aside for 2025-2026 (of that, $20 million is being reallocated from Privy Council Office funds).

The CEO of the MPO, Dawn Farrell, earns a salary between $577,000 and $679,000 a year, according to an order in council issued in late August.

The 11 members of the Indigenous Advisory Council are paid a flat rate of $89,315 per person to cover time and travel expenses for eight in-person meetings over a two-year mandate, as per public records.

The Privy Council Office previously told iPolitics that the agency’s staffing structure is “flexible and agile, supporting a variety of strategies and projects with different requirements at different times.” 

It added that staff were coming in from the public and private sectors, including through Interchange Canada assignments, a program that facilitates temporary work assignments in the public service. 

“The number of employees for the MPO will fluctuate at any given time based on the organizational need, depending on the strategies and projects being supported, and their individual requirements,” reads a statement issued late last year.