Tim Hodgson told the Empire Club of Canada that one of his goals is to have five to 10 major projects with either final investment decisions made, or having broken ground by this time next year. (The Logic)

Talking point: The Major Projects Office, intended to speed up approvals for projects of national significance, is currently shepherding 15 projects through the government approval process. When Hodgson first got the job the government’s process was mired in slow, duplicative bureaucracy and overly complicated permitting, he told an audience in Toronto, but he said that’s beginning to change. He wants to keep projects moving through the approval process to construction, including Alberta’s west coast pipeline proposal, which he expects to receive by July 1. On Thursday, Hodgson told a parliamentary committee that public money could be used to fund the pipeline through the government’s Indigenous loan guarantee program.