Evidence of meeting #31 for Foreign Affairs and International Development in the 44th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was siemens.
A video is available from Parliament.
Managing Director, Siemens Energy Canada Limited
Could you repeat that question?
Bloc
Sébastien Lemire Bloc Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC
Were you paid to do the repairs, even though Gazprom isn't using the turbines?
Managing Director, Siemens Energy Canada Limited
We continued the work on the gas turbine only after we received permission from Global Affairs Canada. Like I said in my opening statement, we could not balance the geopolitical issues at stake.
Bloc
Sébastien Lemire Bloc Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC
Is your contract a pre-arranged contract where you had to do the repairs for several years, or did you have a contract to do the work you were paid for?
Managing Director, Siemens Energy Canada Limited
Thank you for your question.
Particularly for pipeline compression stations, as we require maintenance every three to four years, as I mentioned earlier, we typically engage in long-term maintenance contracts. For this project, a long-term maintenance contract was signed in 2012. This was by an entity called Dresser-Rand, which utilized Rolls-Royce engines.
Just for background, Siemens purchased Rolls-Royce back in 2014, and there was another acquisition of Dresser-Rand in 2017. Those repair orders were part of a long-term maintenance contract that was signed in 2012.
Bloc
Sébastien Lemire Bloc Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC
Okay.
According to the Lobbyists Registry, you met with the government several times over the summer.
In the interest of understanding the context in which these meetings were held, can you give us more details on the issues you discussed with the government? Did you have any concerns about anything other than repairing the turbines?
Managing Director, Siemens Energy Canada Limited
We had registered some meetings. There was a meeting that took place in April. That was an energy round table that was hosted by the German ambassador. There were guests from the German government present. We talked about LNG, hydrogen and critical minerals. As an energy technology company, we often get invited to these round tables, so we participated, and we registered it because we had members of the Canadian government present.
Bloc
Sébastien Lemire Bloc Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC
Why is it that the only facility in the world that can maintain these turbines is the one in Montreal? Couldn't any other country offer this service, not even Germany or Russia?
Managing Director, Siemens Energy Canada Limited
This particular type of gas turbine, the A65, can be repaired only at AGT Montreal. There is another aeroderivative type of engine that's called the A35. It's a smaller one. It's not applicable. It's not useful for this application, but it's a type of turbine that could be repaired in other locations.
Germany also has turbine manufacturing centres, but it has a different type of turbine technology. It really derived from....
As I mentioned earlier, it was an acquisition of Rolls-Royce at the time. It's very highly specialized. We're talking about tooling test centres. Every turbine needs to be tested after maintenance is completed. It's the skill set of the people. The people in Montreal are highly skilled, and they're working on this equipment. There's no other facility. We don't have any other facility in the world that could do this type of work.
Bloc
Sébastien Lemire Bloc Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC
Has the Government of Canada contacted you about a possible reinstatement of sanctions?
Managing Director, Siemens Energy Canada Limited
I'm sorry. I don't understand the question.
Bloc
Sébastien Lemire Bloc Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC
It's an interpretation issue.
He didn't answer the question.
Bloc
Sébastien Lemire Bloc Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC
Has the Government of Canada contacted you about a possible reinstatement of sanctions? Did it tell you that previous sanctions against Russia could be reinstated?
Liberal
Heather McPherson NDP Edmonton Strathcona, AB
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you very much for being here today and answering our questions. I know it's sometimes not very easy to be a witness, especially a sole witness, at committee.
The big question I have right now is this. In July, when we found out about the waiving of the sanctions, we were all very concerned. We worried about what that meant to Canada's sanctions regime, and how the world and Russia would look at us waiving and weakening our sanctions regime.
Since then, from my perspective, it's become very clear that Russia has no intention of using this turbine and that, in fact, the weaponization of energy is part of Putin's plan for this illegal war.
What I'm curious about and what I can't quite understand is why the sanctions and the waiver haven't been cancelled. Do you have any idea? Have you had any conversations with government? Have there been any conversations about why that has not happened yet?
Managing Director, Siemens Energy Canada Limited
It goes back to what I said earlier. This is not our decision to make. We're really looking at governments to instruct us.
NDP
Heather McPherson NDP Edmonton Strathcona, AB
At this point, as a representative for Siemens, can you see any point in the sanctions still being in place?
Are you still working on the remaining five turbines? Are you still doing those repairs? Are you still planning on sending them back?
Managing Director, Siemens Energy Canada Limited
We are not working on any remaining turbines and there is no intention from the customer, I understand, that it would take place.
NDP
Heather McPherson NDP Edmonton Strathcona, AB
The other question I have for you is this. You talked a bit about meetings you had with government officials earlier on. I want to make sure I'm very clear on that.
Did Siemens Canada lobby Minister Joly, her office or her staff, or any other cabinet member or their respective staff, in order to push for the granting of this waiver?
Managing Director, Siemens Energy Canada Limited
No, we did not. We did not lobby.
NDP
