Evidence of meeting #41 for Natural Resources in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was community.
A recording is available from Parliament.
9:20 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Leon Benoit
Thank you, Mr. Daniel. Your time is up.
We go now to Mr. Julian, for up to seven minutes. Go ahead, please.
9:20 a.m.
NDP
Peter Julian NDP Burnaby—New Westminster, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thanks to our witnesses.
I'd like to ask Ms. Blake a question. Your Worship, we really appreciated your warm welcome for Tom Mulcair and our delegation last week. It was good to be in Wood Buffalo and Fort McMurray again. As I mentioned, we'll be going up again this month, so it will be my third or fourth visit to Fort McMurray and Wood Buffalo. We've appreciated your accessibility and your willingness and that of so many residents to share the challenges you're facing up there.
I wanted to start by asking you about the funding for the airport. The airport is very small and cramped. As you know, the volume going through the airport is tremendous.
I'm wondering about two things. You seem to indicate there has not been a federal funding commitment for the new airport, the new terminal that's being built across the runway. You also mentioned cutbacks in federal funding to Fort Chipewyan.
Could you comment a bit more about those two elements. They're surprising to me.
9:20 a.m.
Mayor, Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo
The first one that I'll address is the expansion. We are moving to a terminal that should be able to accommodate 1.2 million passenger movements through the year. We're already exceeding by far the capacity of the current one. The airport authority's premise in thinking about the opportunity for three-way funding is that the authority and the municipality would come up with $50 million for the project and try to leverage that against similar contributions of $50 million from the provincial and federal government. We've had difficulty in securing any funds from any other source.
We think it is an ideal opportunity. The reason for it is that they are undertaking a very expensive project. It's just under $200 million, if I remember properly. Ultimately, the airport improvement fees are at the highest end of the spectrum. We have a very busy airport and we don't foresee that declining in the future. I think the assurance that would come from having some offset of the capital project cost is that it would ensure that we don't bill the passengers excessively.
The second one is the Fort Chipewyan airport. If you need more on that one, that's no problem.
9:25 a.m.
NDP
Peter Julian NDP Burnaby—New Westminster, BC
Just to be clear, the federal government is not allocating any funding right now?
9:25 a.m.
Mayor, Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo
I don't believe any contributions for the capital project have come in. No.
9:25 a.m.
Mayor, Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo
Fort Chipewyan. This is news to me as well. We had a letter that came in very recently indicating that funding would be discontinued. We have 1,300 residents or so up in the region, with lots of activity back and forth. Again, these are participants in the oil sands economy as well.
The troubling part of this is that the winter road only exists between December and March, and the discontinuation of funding will create hardship. Again, it will probably mean a greater expense for the passengers who are trying to get from that community to medical appointments, whether in Fort McMurray or farther up beyond. It's troubling and we would love to see it reinstated.
9:25 a.m.
NDP
Peter Julian NDP Burnaby—New Westminster, BC
Is it possible that you could share that letter with the committee?
9:25 a.m.
NDP
Peter Julian NDP Burnaby—New Westminster, BC
Thank you for that.
I want to move on to the infrastructure issues. You raised the fact that you're looking for $2.4 billion from the Alberta government and an equal amount, another $2.4 billion, from the federal government. Has the Alberta—
9:25 a.m.
Mayor, Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo
No. What I will say is that we have secured $2.4 billion in road works, in health care expansion, in child day care. We've had wage supplements from several years back now. The municipality received $103 million for expanding water and waste water treatment capacity. When you tally up all of these things, the bridges and the overpasses, they would have been a provincial responsibility anyway, but they've finally come to the table and made those investments.
We're suggesting that it would be appropriate to see some investment coming from the federal government. When you look at the distribution of wealth coming from the oil sands, the provincial government, through corporate and personal taxes and the like, tends to take a higher percentage of the oil sands revenues.
9:25 a.m.
NDP
Peter Julian NDP Burnaby—New Westminster, BC
Yes, it's quite shocking to me, Your Worship. Certainly in Ottawa the federal government seems to be talking about revenues coming in from your region, yet it's surprising and quite stunning to me that we're seeing a cutback in funding for Fort Chipewyan, and no real commitments by the federal government to fund what are the huge infrastructure challenges I've seen every time I've gone up there.
I'm quite stunned by this. This is important information you're providing to us. At this point—
9:25 a.m.
Mayor, Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo
Let me be clear that there have been contributions. I think $150 million was recently allocated for the road works, in concert with the province. We have seen some, but in many cases the municipality's side of the balance sheet just isn't eligible for some of that. It usually will funnel through the province, and that's where I go back to the census.
If we look at per capita distribution, whether gas tax revenue or municipal sustainability funding in Alberta, if we're under-represented in that census, we will also be short-changed in the distribution of any additional funds allocated.
9:25 a.m.
NDP
Peter Julian NDP Burnaby—New Westminster, BC
I'd like to move on to your suggestion of an independent monitoring institute. From speaking with residents of your municipality, I certainly know that a lot of people have raised concerns about a lack of long-term health monitoring. How do you perceive this institute as functioning? Are you in active negotiations or discussions with the federal government and provincial government about setting this up?
9:25 a.m.
Mayor, Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo
No, this is a new idea just for the script that we created for your standing committee. But I think it is something that would be well served by both the federal and the provincial government. Indeed, an on-the-ground facility residing in the municipality would draw in the independent monitoring and give the people in the community an opportunity to interface directly with it.
I have very high regard for our Wood Buffalo Environmental Association. They do a very good job of presenting information to the public. Many of us don't take advantage of that, except to say that it's much more comfortable to have somebody in the community, breathing the same air and drinking the same water, responsible for that independent monitoring.
9:30 a.m.
NDP
Peter Julian NDP Burnaby—New Westminster, BC
At this point, the municipality has raised the issue. Have staff at the municipality done any study of what funding would be required?
9:30 a.m.
Mayor, Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo
We have not, but if there's a genuine appetite for it, we'd be happy to take that on.
9:30 a.m.
NDP
Peter Julian NDP Burnaby—New Westminster, BC
Well, in conversations I've had up in Fort McMurray and Fort McKay, there seems to be a real interest and appetite for that kind of monitoring. It's certainly an idea that we'll follow up on, on our side of the table here.
9:30 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Leon Benoit
We go now to Mr. McGuinty, for up to seven minutes, please.
Go ahead, sir.
9:30 a.m.
Liberal
David McGuinty Liberal Ottawa South, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for being here.
I'll begin with Mr. Bradley from the CEA.
Mr. Bradley, I went through your materials looking for some kind of study or projection of energy needs in northern Canada over the next 25 to 50 years. Does the CEA have one? Have you seen one performed by a national or a provincial government?
9:30 a.m.
Vice-President, Policy Development, Canadian Electricity Association
Specific to northern Canada?
9:30 a.m.
Vice-President, Policy Development, Canadian Electricity Association
We don't have one. We haven't produced one specific to northern Canada.
We have included it in some of the work we've done jointly with the Conference Board of Canada, so it's part of the rolled-up information that we provided. For example, the $347.5 billion in investment over a 20-year period that I referenced earlier is for Canada as a whole and does indeed include, at the margins, northern Canada. I'd also note, though, that it's a figure based on business as usual, and we know that business will not be as usual over the next 20 years.