Finance Committee on March 1st, 2018

[Richard Botham]

Generally, the kind of mandate that governments have provided the department in terms of that work includes two classes. One class would be a group called enterprise crown corporations. These are crown corporations that operate in a quasi-private market sphere. Examples would be Canada Post or any crown corporation with a commercial mandate. Other kinds of assets that governments could ask the department to look at would be holdings. Usually, they're natural resource holdings. They're legacy. They come from a variety of time periods. They were established for a certain policy reason in some decade and have persisted over time. Different governments have asked for a review of the relevancy of the government's activity in that sphere.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

Can you give a better description of the second class? Can you give an example?

[Richard Botham]

At the time of the establishment of the transcontinental railway, there was ceding of property to the Government of Canada of coal blocks in British Columbia. They're referred to as the Dominion Coal Blocks. That is an asset of the Government of Canada that was not developed by the governments over time as active coal properties, but at different time periods, depending on commodity prices, they would have a value to the private sector. A government could decide to continue to hold that. The government could decide, for different policy reasons, to divest it to a province, to indigenous people, or to the private sector. It's of that type.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

You said the previous government had supported temporary funding for such reviews. Has the amount of money in these estimates, compared to the previous three years, gone up?

[Richard Botham]

Compared to the previous three years, I don't believe so.

[Adelle Laniel]

It has been $0.4 million every year.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

The work has been steady and ongoing.

[Richard Botham]

It has been ongoing on a temporary basis, yes.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

I think we could probably describe a good amount of government in that way.

[Richard Botham]

Sometimes that's the case, yes.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

In regard to the first asset class you mentioned—the assets that have commercial interest or commercial applications—what goes into the reviews, and what is the ultimate point of some of these reviews?

[Richard Botham]

The ultimate point goes back to a point in time in the 1990s when there was a fundamental review of asset activities of the Government of Canada. Up until about seven years ago, there hadn't been that kind of in-depth review again. There was a decision made that the government should be looking at those kinds of assets.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

That decision was made in the previous government.

[Richard Botham]

Both governments, current and previous, have come to the same conclusion that there's utility in looking at that. The mandates given by the government vary depending on the time period.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

Are there any matching funds in the estimates that are for the sale of those assets?

[Richard Botham]

I'm sorry?

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

Are there matching funds within these estimates for the sale of those assets or considered sale?

[Richard Botham]

No.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

This is just a review so that the government knows what's in its inventory and basically has an idea of how those enterprises are interacting in the commercial sphere today.

[Richard Botham]

It also provides advice on different options for the government, and then the government decides which direction it would like to proceed in.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

We'll have to leave it there.

Thanks, Mr. Botham.

Mr. Fergus, you have the last questions.

[Greg Fergus, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

Good morning, everyone.

Ms. Laniel, thank you very much for your presentation.

I assume that the day after the budget presentation is similar to a hangover. In addition, we are still talking about the expenditures for the current year.

I would like to come back to a question raised by my colleague Mr. Grewal about the expenditures related to the Canada Infrastructure Bank. You mentioned that those expenditures were earmarked for establishing the organization.

First, are those expenditures temporary in nature or will they be committed on an annual basis?

[Adelle Laniel]

I can speak to that. The costs are set-up costs, because that's the stage they're in within their organization, so there will be permanent costs related to the organization in the future as they get into the future stages of the program. They are staffing up, but those staff will remain.

[Greg Fergus, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

My apologies. I thought those were additional expenses.