Finance Committee on May 2nd, 2019

[Michael McLeod, Liberal, Northwest Territories, NT]

But it doesn't follow the nation-to-nation concept that we talk about.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

The way the gas tax refund works for, say, Northwest Territories is that it goes back to the territorial government, and they manage it. Is that what you're saying?

[Michael McLeod, Liberal, Northwest Territories, NT]

The gas tax in the Northwest Territories goes to the Government of the Northwest Territories. They provide it to the municipalities, not to indigenous governments, and the reason I raise this is because it does say “first nations” in this clause, which means there's a different standard for the rest of Canada compared to the Northwest Territories. Indigenous people and indigenous governments don't get it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

That's a valid point, Michael.

I think Mr. Sorbara had a question.

[Francesco Sorbara, Liberal, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

Does Mr. McLeod wish to continue?

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

No, he's complete. You're next.

[Francesco Sorbara, Liberal, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

First off, to my colleague Mr. McLeod, thank you for raising that point and explaining that to us. I wasn't aware of that either.

I have a quick question. When will the $2.2 billion be distributed to municipalities?

[Bogdan Makuc]

It's subject to the parliamentary approval of the legislation. Once that is done, then we will be in a position to flow the money to our signatories, which are the provinces and territories, who will then flow it to municipalities as per the terms of their agreements.

[Francesco Sorbara, Liberal, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

Of course. Its anticipated to be done once the legislation is passed, so effectively, this year.

[Bogdan Makuc]

If it is passed, yes.

[Francesco Sorbara, Liberal, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

I would hypothesize that it will be prior to the summer construction season, of course.

For the area I represent in York Region, the City of Vaughan, this effectively doubles the amount of funds received by municipalities and also by regions in Ontario. In my city, the city where I reside and the area, it will mean an extra $9.18 million that could be used by the city to build infrastructure and bridges, pave roads and create good jobs.

I will leave it at that, Mr. Chair. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

I have one question.

In terms of the gas tax fund, if the $2.2 billion follows, as the previous one did, is stacking allowed?

[Bogdan Makuc]

Under the gas tax fund, a community can use up to 100% of this funding to build a project. There are no cost-sharing requirements. They don't have to contribute any of their own funding, nor do the provinces. It is treated as federal dollars with respect to other programs. In other programs that we run in our department, the gas tax fund is treated as federal dollars so the stacking provisions of those programs apply. But with respect to the gas tax fund, there are no stacking provisions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

That's good, because on bridges and such, that's a problem for some of the very small municipalities or communities.

Thank you very much.

If there are no further questions on payment in relation to infrastructure, then we'll turn to.... I believe, Ms. Henry, you're up on the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.

[Joyce Henry, Director General, Office of Energy Efficiency, Energy Sector, Department of Natural Resources]

Thank you.

Actually, Bogdan's going to stay here with me, because there's an infrastructure component to this.

My name is Joyce Henry. I'm the director general of the office of energy efficiency at Natural Resources Canada. I'm here to speak to you about the proposal contained in clause 131, in division 4 of part 4, which proposes to provide $1.01 billion to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities on energy efficiency improvements for houses and buildings, and to improve strategic infrastructure decisions.

The clause is made up of four subclauses. They provide authorization for payments to be made out of the consolidated revenue fund to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities' green municipal fund and the asset management fund. They further allow for the Government of Canada to enter into an agreement that establishes the terms and conditions for the use of the funding in those two instances.

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities, as I'm sure you're all aware, is a long-standing partner of the federal government in delivering programs on environmental benefits. They're the national voice of municipal governments and their membership includes more than 2,000 municipalities of all sizes, including urban, rural and northern communities from coast to coast.

The proposal itself, with respect to energy efficiency funding, is for $950 million in additional funds to the green municipal fund. There's a breakdown within that of $300 million for sustainable, affordable housing innovation, $300 million for community eco-efficiency acceleration to advance home retrofits and innovative financing mechanisms related to that, and a $350-million allotment to fund the low-carbon cities Canada initiative and to collaborate on community climate action to improve energy efficiency in large buildings.

There's also a proposal to provide $60 million in additional funding to support the infrastructure development activities of the asset management fund. The asset management fund is supported by a contribution agreement between the Minister of Infrastructure and Communities and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. It supports municipal-level capacity building for managing assets and improving strategic infrastructure investment decisions. New investments will contribute to smart infrastructure investments in support of environmentally and financially sustainable communities.

With respect to the green municipal fund, it contributes to environmental benefits for Canadians by offering grants and loans for environmental municipal projects in five key areas: energy, water, waste, sustainable transportation and brownfields. The funding proposed through budget 2019 is meant to focus on advancing energy efficiency in the built environment.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Are there any comments or questions on this section?

Ms. Rudd.

[Kim Rudd, Liberal, Northumberland—Peterborough South, ON]

Thank you.

The energy efficiency fund was certainly something I was pretty excited to see. I know that the Federation of Canadian Municipalities has been very engaged on this and has done good work on behalf of the municipalities.

I wonder if you could explain it a little more. You were running through the list a bit quickly, and I'm not quite sure I got it all. I think it's $350 million that engages the home retrofit program. Can you talk about how you anticipate that home retrofit program working and what it would include?

[Joyce Henry]

Sure. It's actually $300 million for the home retrofit portion, if I can call it that. It's called the community eco-efficiency acceleration. The details need to be worked out with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. They are an arm's-length organization, although there are federal members, including me, who sit on the council. That work is fairly nascent but will begin soon. The idea, though, is that as municipalities apply under the criteria for grants and loans on this, they would then be able to make innovative programs with respect to this money for homeowners.

One of the ideas under that is an innovative program on financing, for example. It's called the property assessed clean energy model. It allows homeowners to make energy efficiency improvements to their households and then pay that back over time on their property tax bill. This already exists in Alberta and I think in Nova Scotia as well. It's been very successful in the United States and parts of Europe.

That's one innovative example, but there are others with respect to energy efficiency ideas for which municipalities could put forward an application.

[Kim Rudd, Liberal, Northumberland—Peterborough South, ON]

That ties into my colleague Mr. Oliphant's comment about opportunities and the ways in which Canadians can create energy efficiency in their homes, save money, and indeed have more money in their pockets from the climate action incentives they're getting. That's the behavioural change. I wasn't aware of the loan system that's happening through the tax system. What a great opportunity for folks who can't put out what could be a significant amount of money to be able to do it that way. I hope as you progress in your discussions that this is certainly something that finds its way to the table.

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Thank you.

Mr. Dusseault.

[Pierre-Luc Dusseault, NDP, Sherbrooke, QC]

Thank you.

I have tremendous confidence in the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and its management, but my question has to do with accountability. Today, we are being asked to approve significant amounts of funding, in excess of a billion dollars.

How will Canadians obtain detailed information on how every single dollar we approve today is spent going forward? Should they rely on the Federation of Canadian Municipalities for that information, or will it be available in the Public Accounts of Canada?

[Joyce Henry]

Absolutely. The FCM does an annual report each year on their activities under the green municipal fund. Equally, they do a forward-looking report on what they intend to use as objectives under the current green municipal fund. Both of those are publicly available and tabled in Parliament.

I can give a bit more detail on what criteria is required under them. It includes very detailed representations on, for example, the financial audit of the fund, which is required; the projects that have been funded and the outcomes from that; and those sorts of details.

[Pierre-Luc Dusseault, NDP, Sherbrooke, QC]

I see. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Are there no further questions on this section? Okay.

Thank you very much for your presentation, folks.

We are now on STARS, the Shock Trauma Air Rescue Service, which is still under part 4 of division 4.

Mr. Joyal and Mr. Gallant, who's up?

Mr. Joyal.

[Martin Joyal, Senior Director, Policy and Program Development, Emergency Management and Program Branch , Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness]

Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee.

My name is Martin Joyal and I am from Public Safety Canada, in Ottawa. With me is my colleague Benjamin Gallant.

We're here to speak to you about subclauses 132(1) and 132(2) in the proposed budget bill. What is proposed in those two clauses is to provide the Minister of Public Safety with, first, the funding, and second, the authority to enter into an agreement to flow those funds to the not-for-profit organization named Shock Trauma Air Rescue Service, or STARS for short, which is based in Calgary.

The funding is to provide that not-for-profit with $65 million for the purchase of five new helicopters. STARS provides a critical emergency service, air ambulance services, in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and parts of British Columbia. The ministers responsible for emergency management met in January and approved a new emergency management strategy for Canada. Under that, we are working with provinces and territories and the full community involved in EM to look at where gaps, or potential imminent gaps, are in our EM posture.

With the aging fleet at STARS, they had started undertaking a capital-raising campaign to renew the fleet. With the funding proposed here in the budget, to be provided from the minister to the organization, this would allow the organization to accelerate its renewal process. It had been estimated that it would take another 10 years in order to renew the whole fleet. This will significantly increase it and they should be in a position to have 100% renewal in the next three years. That is what's proposed here.