Finance Committee on Oct. 26th, 2011

[Cathy McLeod, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

Thank you.

I think because we're in Prince Rupert one of the last questions should perhaps focus on the Prince Rupert Port Authority. Certainly as members of the B.C. caucus, we hear regularly in terms of what's happening here. I can remember my former colleague Stockwell Day, as the minister for the Asia-Pacific gateway, being incredibly enthusiastic, and of course now Minister Fast has taken up that very great portfolio, in my mind.

The government has committed significant dollars over time to what's been happening up here. I think it's about $1.4 billion. I have to quickly make a note in terms of infrastructure. Of course we have had the Building Canada fund, we've had enormous extra support through the stimulus program that was needed, and we have made a commitment for a conversation about where we need to go on an ongoing basis. Can you talk about how the government should focus its infrastructure investments going forward, from your lens?

[Don Krusel]

Thank you very much.

The first round—and it was over $1 billion—of Pacific gateway infrastructure funding was focused on smoothing out the supply chain, and working on the bottlenecks. I guess I would just have to say that we didn't have those bottlenecks and congestion problems in this corridor. Of the $1.2 billion in the first round—and I say the first round because we were hoping that there would be more rounds—there was only probably about $40 million that was spent in this entire corridor.

This next opportunity for Canada is all about trade, the export of our resource trade with Asia. There's a huge demand for our resources, but it also puts a huge demand on building the infrastructure I talked about in my presentation. Really, that's what I think the next round of investment should be focused on, building capacity on the west coast.

With that, I have to emphasize that the mine association and such isn't just about investments in Prince Rupert or Vancouver. It's really all about investing to enable. Whether it's a potash mine development in Saskatchewan, a coal mine in northern Alberta or B.C., or the grain fields of this land, it's all about providing the doorway and the capacity so that we can take advantage of the tremendous opportunity that is unfolding in Asia.

The investment should be placed to make sure that we have capacity at our doorway, to build the doorway larger, and build it more fluidly so that Canada can take advantage of trade opportunities, create jobs, prosperity, and opportunity right across the entire country. Actually I think it goes a long way to addressing what is being talked about right here, and this community is a good example. You build infrastructure that creates jobs and opportunities.

I would suggest that the economic gap here in this community has been improved dramatically by the fact that we have a container port and a bulk port that are growing. The level of jobs that have been created here in the last five years, on a ratio scale, has been absolutely tremendous, and it's all about that first initial strategic investment in the infrastructure.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

You have 30 seconds, Ms. McLeod.

[Cathy McLeod, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

In terms of Prince Rupert employment, it sounded like you managed to ease through from 2008 with perhaps less pain than a forestry-dependent community.

[Don Krusel]

Absolutely. Bearing in mind that the community is still in a very tight and desperate economic situation because we have lost a number of sectors, I and most people in this community would suggest that it has been the port and transportation sectors that saved this community, and built jobs.

We're not at the job level that we perhaps were ten years ago, but we're getting close to that. With the type of expansion that we're projecting over the coming years, we will more than surpass the economic activity that we had ten years ago with those other sectors. It will all be as a result of that port infrastructure.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Thank you, Ms. McLeod.

That's a good segue into our afternoon session. We're actually going to be touring the port with the port authority and the coast guard. We're very much looking forward to that.

Colleagues, please feel free if you do want to get into somewhat more casual gear that is more resistant to certain types of weather. We need to be ready to go at 12 noon sharp, so we're having lunch here.

I do want to thank our guests very much for coming in today, for presenting, and for responding to our questions.

I know there were some comments about having further information. Please submit that to the clerk and we will ensure that every member gets that information.

Thank you so much for being with us here.

The meeting is adjourned.