Evidence of meeting #21 for Finance in the 40th Parliament, 3rd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was budget.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Economic and Fiscal Policy Branch, Department of Finance
I think we have someone from PPP Canada coming to the table.
Greg Smith Chief Financial Officer, Public-Private Partnerships Canada
Could you just quickly repeat that? I'm sorry.
Liberal
Martha Hall Findlay Liberal Willowdale, ON
That's okay. You may not have been here, Mr. Smith. There was a question earlier on P3.
Chief Financial Officer, Public-Private Partnerships Canada
I'm sorry. We were at West Block at a meeting.
Liberal
Martha Hall Findlay Liberal Willowdale, ON
It happens to us all the time.
Earlier there was just a bit of discussion about P3 projects. My understanding is that there are two now that are being funded. I'm looking specifically at the payments to PPP Canada for P3 fund investments, and there is $170 million. That's just two projects?
Chief Financial Officer, Public-Private Partnerships Canada
No. There was a call for projects in September 2009; round one. We received some 20 applications. We are processing those applications. The minister made the first project announcement two weeks ago, funding an emergency maritime radio project in the combined Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and P.E.I. That is the only project that has been announced to date.
Liberal
Martha Hall Findlay Liberal Willowdale, ON
So that's the only project.
And is this funding then anticipating a number of other projects that you think are in line for funding?
Chief Financial Officer, Public-Private Partnerships Canada
We are continuing to do our evaluation on the projects, and the board of PPP Canada will be making further recommendations to the minister, yes.
Liberal
Martha Hall Findlay Liberal Willowdale, ON
Can I just express a little bit of concern at $240 million for some things that we have no real information for? Could there be a commitment to provide more information in more detail to us, if possible, in the next couple of weeks on what's out there, whether that money would be just for the one year? Is that an anticipated amount projected out for several years? That kind of detail would be really helpful. That would just go right to the committee, then, if that's possible.
Chief Financial Officer, Public-Private Partnerships Canada
That's fine. Absolutely.
Liberal
Martha Hall Findlay Liberal Willowdale, ON
I would also note that $10 million has already been spent on the PPP office. How many people are housed in that office?
Chief Financial Officer, Public-Private Partnerships Canada
Today there are 32 people, and we are anticipating growth to around 42 to 43 staff.
Liberal
Martha Hall Findlay Liberal Willowdale, ON
We've been talking about money spent on PPP Canada for the last couple of years without really anything. That seems like a great deal of money that's already been spent and we're only now up to one project.
But I'll leave that just for the record.
Liberal
John McKay Liberal Scarborough—Guildwood, ON
I want to ask Mr. Rochon, who, I thought in response to Mr. Wallace, said he thought that interest costs would go down. In these statements, the interest costs jumped by $1.8 billion. The government has ramped up its debt quite substantially, somewhere around $160 billion over five years, and there's active speculation that the Bank of Canada will raise its interest rates. So I find your statement that you think that interest costs will go down somewhat startling.
Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Economic and Fiscal Policy Branch, Department of Finance
Yes, there's some.... The debt charges that are reflected here, which I believe are $33.7 billion, are reflective of the projection for debt charges in the September 2009 fall statement. As you know, between September 2009 and the budget, interest rates fell a lot. As a result, in the budget we're projecting debt charges of $31.3 billion for 2010-11, so a savings of about—
Liberal
John McKay Liberal Scarborough—Guildwood, ON
I'm not quite sure I understand you. For the main estimates for the fiscal year ending March of this year, it's $31.8 billion--your interest costs.
Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Economic and Fiscal Policy Branch, Department of Finance
Correct--
Liberal
John McKay Liberal Scarborough—Guildwood, ON
Then you jump that by $1.8 billion to fiscal year ending March next year. What does this have to do with September of 2009?
Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Economic and Fiscal Policy Branch, Department of Finance
What we're comparing here is the $33.8 billion in debt charges for the 2010-11 fiscal year, which was tabled March 3 before the budget, and that forecast was based not on the budget forecast but on the forecast available previous to the budget, which was the fall update.
What I'm saying is between the fall update and the budget—
Liberal
John McKay Liberal Scarborough—Guildwood, ON
I'm not entirely clear what you're saying, but it seems to me that what you're saying is that you based your budget forecast for this year on what the numbers were in September of 2009.
Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Economic and Fiscal Policy Branch, Department of Finance
No. What I'm saying is that the main estimates, which are not the budget but the main estimates and they are tabled before the budget, were based on the fall update, because the budget had not been presented. We have come out with our supplementary estimates (A) and we revised the debt charge number down to $31.3 billion. That reflects the impact of lower interest rates worldwide as we went into a recession and interest rates were affected.
Liberal
Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Economic and Fiscal Policy Branch, Department of Finance
For 2009-10, the accumulated debt is $517.5 billion.