No, the payments to the bank.
Evidence of meeting #136 for Finance in the 42nd Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was million.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #136 for Finance in the 42nd Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was million.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Economic Development and Corporate Finance Branch, Department of Finance
What you see represented here, as you've mentioned, is the first installment of funding provided to the bank. You're correct that it is money being used to establish the bank: start-up costs around buildings, real estate, staffing, and IT systems. This is start-up money.
The second part of your question was, is there a schedule of capitalization? The answer is no. The reason for that is really twofold. One, the bank, on an annual basis, will submit a corporate plan. There is one corporate plan that has been submitted, and only in respect so far of establishing its activities. In the coming year, the coming cycle will be a second corporate plan. In that corporate plan, the activities will be stipulated for the coming fiscal year and a preview of future fiscal years.
It's only at that time when the next corporate plan is approved that there will be a sense of what future draws will be and, like many other crown corporations, it will be on an annual rolling basis that this visibility is provided.
Conservative
Pat Kelly Conservative Calgary Rocky Ridge, AB
The budget announcing that this bank would exist called for something like $35 billion.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Economic Development and Corporate Finance Branch, Department of Finance
That's correct.
Conservative
Pat Kelly Conservative Calgary Rocky Ridge, AB
There's no current schedule of disbursement. There's no current plan. We're waiting for the bank to be established and for its management to present a plan.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Economic Development and Corporate Finance Branch, Department of Finance
What I was trying to convey in my earlier statement was that there is a corporate planning process. One corporate plan has been received. The focus of that was on start-up. There will be another corporate plan in the next fiscal year that will give a longer-term view.
Conservative
Assistant Deputy Minister, Economic Development and Corporate Finance Branch, Department of Finance
Typically those plans would come forward to the Treasury Board for its review in spring or early summer, so that's what I would anticipate.
Conservative
Pat Kelly Conservative Calgary Rocky Ridge, AB
This spring or summer is when you expect their plan to be delivered?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Economic Development and Corporate Finance Branch, Department of Finance
That's the typical planning framework for corporations, but not all corporations fit within the typical. I don't have a date at which that second corporate plan is going forward.
Conservative
Pat Kelly Conservative Calgary Rocky Ridge, AB
Regarding the Asian Infrastructure Bank, is there a known schedule for the purchase of shares in the Asian Infrastructure Bank?
Assistant Deputy Minister, International Trade and Finance Branch, Department of Finance
Those payment schedules will be made near the end of successive fiscal years as we are planning to issue our first installment this March. We will do this in subsequent Marches.
Assistant Deputy Minister, International Trade and Finance Branch, Department of Finance
We will make our first formal contribution, yes, and then successive years around this time of the year.
Conservative
Pat Kelly Conservative Calgary Rocky Ridge, AB
We don't yet know what the payment will be this March.
Assistant Deputy Minister, International Trade and Finance Branch, Department of Finance
The payment will be the number you had. It will be $53.4 million Canadian.
Conservative
Pat Kelly Conservative Calgary Rocky Ridge, AB
That's the number right before us. That $53.4 million is for this year.
Assistant Deputy Minister, International Trade and Finance Branch, Department of Finance
That is for this year.
Conservative
Pat Kelly Conservative Calgary Rocky Ridge, AB
We don't know what the subsequent schedule will be. That will be on an annual basis?
Assistant Deputy Minister, International Trade and Finance Branch, Department of Finance
It will be on an annual basis, and it will be a comparable amount subject to fluctuations in exchange rates. This is the Canadian dollar. Canada's equity investment into the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is $199 million U.S., which at current exchange rates is roughly $256 million Canadian. That payment will vary a little bit each year.
Conservative
Dan Albas Conservative Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC
While we have you here, Assistant Deputy Minister, in regard to the Canadian Infrastructure Bank, can you confirm again how much the government is giving them in these estimates?
