Will it be for the highest and best use?
Evidence of meeting #20 for Finance in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was project.
A video is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #20 for Finance in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was project.
A video is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Dan Albas Conservative Okanagan Lake West—South Kelowna, BC
Will it be for the highest and best use?
Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Programs, Department of Transport
On this principle—
Conservative
Dan Albas Conservative Okanagan Lake West—South Kelowna, BC
Answer yes or no. Again, it's the highest and best use. It's either yes or no. When you freeze someone's land, that undermines the cost of it.
Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Programs, Department of Transport
Yes, the principle of expropriation takes into account the different uses of the land.
Conservative
Dan Albas Conservative Okanagan Lake West—South Kelowna, BC
Okay, so again, the answer is no.
The bill also lets Ottawa impose a right of first refusal and work prohibition notices with no expiry date, which can depress land value indefinitely...even the people around it. Why not limit these freezes to 18 months unless a judge approves an extension?
Liberal
Steven MacKinnon Liberal Gatineau, QC
The principles that you just discussed, whether they be on improvements or the right of first refusal, are in fact to allow landowners the clarity that significant improvements to the land should not be contemplated. That's a pretty easily explainable principle. There should not, of course, be construction on an identified piece of corridor of linear infrastructure.
The right of first refusal does not prevent a landowner from entering into a purchase and sale agreement; it just allows the government to match it.
Conservative
Dan Albas Conservative Okanagan Lake West—South Kelowna, BC
Minister, again, if you've frozen the use of something and there is no defined timeline, like 18 months.... You said right away that it's four years for just the first phase. This could be—
Liberal
Steven MacKinnon Liberal Gatineau, QC
Remember, to put it in context, that this is after a specific piece of land, a 60-metre wide corridor, has already been identified as part of the recommended alignment.
Conservative
Dan Albas Conservative Okanagan Lake West—South Kelowna, BC
Minister, I know you want to minimize it—
Conservative
Liberal
Conservative
Conservative
Dan Albas Conservative Okanagan Lake West—South Kelowna, BC
I want to say, Minister, it's important for people to know that 18 months—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Karina Gould
Can we please cut Mr. Albas's mic? His time is up. Thank you.
Mr. Sawatzky, you have five minutes. Thank you.
Liberal
Jake Sawatzky Liberal New Westminster—Burnaby—Maillardville, BC
Thank you very much, Chair.
Thank you, Minister, for coming today.
I, for one, am very excited about this. I think many Canadians are, especially considering the global context of needing to invest in our own country, connect provinces together and stimulate more transportation. This is a really important thing that for a very long time we'll be looking back at and we'll be very happy about the investments into the long term.
You can add on the context that Canada is one of the only G7 countries without high-speed rail. It seems as though we are lacking in that department, and this will be long overdue to really help that.
With budget 2025, this is, of course, a generational initiative. It's going to boost our economy, create tens of thousands of good-paying jobs and, of course, unlock enhanced productivity with the increased transportation.
Could you share with this committee what message that building this very ambitious project will send to our allies, our trading partners and our international investors? How is this going to set up our reputation around the globe?
Liberal
Steven MacKinnon Liberal Gatineau, QC
Thank you for that.
Indeed, Canadians will be making this decision in the interests of the generations that follow us. There will be people sitting in the seats we all occupy right now. I hope you're one of them in a couple of decades who will thank us for doing this work.
This is an avant-garde project, but more importantly it shows the world that Canada can still contemplate, decide and complete big things like the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Confederation Bridge that I know Mr. MacDonald knows very well.
Remember that, faced with threats from south of our border, Canada decided to build an east-west railway across the great expanses of the Prairies and the Rocky Mountains, and did so in four years. I'm not sure that some of the methods used in those days would be appropriate in the current era, but it is the spirit of accomplishment of the CPR that I think ought to inspire us.
In terms of the more tangible benefits, we're taking cars off the road. We're allowing smaller cities like Trois-Rivières and Peterborough to imagine a new kind of economic future. We're allowing students, residents, travellers, tourists and business people to imagine a much reduced and much easier travel time between some of our great economic centres in this country.
This is an incredible thing. It would be the first such infrastructure on North American soil, and what a hopeful, ambitious and incredible message for Canada to send to have brand new high-speed electric cars come into some of our greatest cities and be able to come and go with a frequency and accessibility that would allow anyone to board them and use them to conduct their affairs and live their lives on a daily basis.
Liberal
Jake Sawatzky Liberal New Westminster—Burnaby—Maillardville, BC
I certainly agree that this is very forward-thinking for our future generations, and I absolutely hope I will still be here to see the day when it's all done and be able to ride it myself.
Of course, we'll be using a lot of Canadian materials to build it as well. I was wondering if you could speak to that. I am from British Columbia. We have a lot of lumber industry, so maybe you could speak to the lumber that will be used, and the steel and aluminum, as well as the jobs that this will create?
Liberal
Steven MacKinnon Liberal Gatineau, QC
We have a buy Canadian policy, and obviously the animating spirit of this government is that we shall be building great national projects with our steel, with our lumber, with our aluminum and with the men and women in our skilled trades. The demand I outlined in my speech for all of those materials and for that labour is quite substantial.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Karina Gould
We're going to have to conclude this round.
Thank you, Mr. Sawatzky.
It's now over to Mr. Garon for two and a half minutes.
Bloc
Jean-Denis Garon Bloc Mirabel, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Certainly, Minister, you need this bill in order to meet your construction schedule, since you designed the schedule knowing that you would be introducing the bill. It's like a dog chasing its tail.
Now I want you to look me in the eye and tell me something. When expropriation notices are issued to residents of Mirabel, a place whose history we are familiar with, it is the government's position that giving the individual the right to be heard by the tribunal and conducting an impact assessment are problematic; all that does is slow down the government's great project. Please tell me, so it's clear to the people of Mirabel.
Liberal
Steven MacKinnon Liberal Gatineau, QC
Mr. Garon, I've spoken to a lot of people in the Lower Laurentians, including in Mirabel. A few years ago, I went to Mirabel to speak with members of the Union des producteurs agricoles. Although I can't appreciate what happened in the same way that someone who lives in Mirabel can, I fully understand the mistakes that were made in relation to the Mirabel airport project.