Government Operations Committee on May 14th, 2009

[John Baird, Conservative, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

We aren't the owners; it's an independent administration. However, they are eligible—

[Jean-Yves Roy, Bloc, Haute-Gaspésie—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

You are the owners.

[John Baird, Conservative, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

They're also eligible for the $4 billion fund. If you have any suggestions, I'm prepared to hear them.

I spoke with the people from Sept-Îles and the Port of Quebec. My office has held a few meetings to view the interest expressed. My priority is to work with the provinces and municipalities to make the fund stronger. If the federal, provincial and municipal governments invest, we can create three times as many jobs. I must emphasize that the fisheries sector is receiving funding for small craft harbours.

[Jean-Yves Roy, Bloc, Haute-Gaspésie—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

That's what I'm expecting from you, minister. You're talking about the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, but I'm talking to you about the Department of Transport.

[John Baird, Conservative, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

If you have any suggestions, I'm prepared to listen to you. I've already received a notice from five members in your caucus. As always, there are more proposals than money available.

[The Chair, Liberal, Derek Lee]

Merci.

Mr. Jean, for eight minutes.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister, for being here today. I can't tell you how much easier you make our jobs, as government members. I noted before I came to committee today that you've actually been at eight different committee meetings so far, providing information to members, and I can tell you--

[John Baird, Conservative, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

I've never had as warm an invitation as I had from the member for Willowdale, and repeated.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

I note with particular interest that the member for Willowdale has actually had three different briefings from the department as well, so she's obviously up on her files and has many attributes.

[John Baird, Conservative, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

She's certainly the best infrastructure critic the Liberal Party has had in this Parliament, by far--smart, on top of her files.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

Indeed, thank you for that, Mr. Minister. You've made our job a lot easier. You've thrown me off my questions with all those comments.

[John Baird, Conservative, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

I could talk more about the member for Willowdale, if you like.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

Actually, I have enough information here on her. She does stay on top of her files and I'd like to congratulate her for that.

I'm wondering about this, though, sir, as a member of Parliament who represents some 30% of the geography in Alberta. We have a lot of roads, and our population density is obviously quite small. In Canada we have about 1.1 or 1.2 people per square kilometre, and indeed my constituents are worried about roads. They're worried about highways. And now that you've taken the steps with the provinces in such a record time to get that agreement, we are more curious about how you're going to move forward or how the department and this government is going to move forward with the stimulus package in transportation issues across the country.

[John Baird, Conservative, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

It does work, I think, asymmetrically in different parts of the country. In some provinces with smaller populations, I think you could argue that they can be more agile because they have projects on the books that they're probably prepared to go forward on.

Obviously, as the Minister of Transport, whether it's public transit, roads, bridges, I give priority to those, at least in my own mind. We are moving to try to have a balanced approach, where we have some municipal projects, some provincial projects, and some federal projects. I think there has been a good amount of progress in Alberta. Obviously there's more work to be done, and every day we do more and move the bar higher.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

Now, particularly in smaller communities...my riding also includes a lot of forest products industries, and they are concerned. Obviously they're usually in smaller towns, one-industry towns, and I know our government moved forward with a community development package of $1 billion. Can you tell us what this government is doing for smaller communities that are being hard hit by this economic downturn?

[John Baird, Conservative, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

We've tried to have a balanced approach. I represent an urban riding in Ontario, probably the most urban one in the government caucus east of Winnipeg. We think investments in big cities are tremendously important, but so too are investments in rural Canada, so too are investments in smaller communities. One of the things the Minister of Finance put in his budget was a $500 million community top-up through which, for those provinces that had fully committed their communities' component of Building Canada, there would be additional resources.

I'll give you a quick example. It's not part of the stimulus. We have on one side stimulus initiatives. On the other side, we have a significant program for accelerating the existing Building Canada program. When the Minister of Finance came forward with the $500 million top-up, with the Province of Ontario, for example--Minister Merrifield, as you know, deals with Alberta infrastructure issues--we were going to announce $300 million of support for small communities. We were able to identify a billion dollars worth of projects, go three times farther, three times faster. Those were announced in February. So it's not part of the $4 billion stimulus plan, but part of the accelerated Building Canada Fund, where we're going to be able to get seven years' worth of decisions and work done much more aggressively.

Already in Ontario the call for the top-up has gone forward. So we were already allocated the money for up to 2014, and those projects in many cases are going outside of the $4 billion stimulus, but we're going to be able to use a significant amount of resources from that $500 million fund to get more projects going farther, faster. So it's really the two-sided coin. Half of it is accelerating the existing Building Canada Fund and the other half is the additional stimulus measures contained in the budget.

Roads are particularly important for rural Canada, For northern Ontario, they're tremendously important.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

I'm wondering if you agree with the leader of the Liberal Party when he said that he's perfectly willing to come back in September and October. Do you think that's a reasonable timeframe?

[John Baird, Conservative, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

It's a reasonable proposition, and I know the member for Willowdale would agree as well.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

I had an opportunity to speak to the department in relation to particular provinces that have made applications for this stimulus funding, and I couldn't actually go through all the paperwork before the meeting today, but I was surprised. Has there been a tremendous response from the provinces on these stimulus plans?

[John Baird, Conservative, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

I have to tell you the people have put politics aside. I am pleased to report that we've worked very well with Danny Williams' government in Newfoundland. They put politics aside, which is tremendous, to all of our credits. So we are making good progress.

Municipalities are ready; they have a lot of projects. People said two or three months ago, “Municipalities won't have any money. Just give them the cash, because they couldn't possibly match it.” They can, right across the country. We will have no problem finding municipalities that will put up cash to have some skin in the game, to build infrastructure projects, whether it's waste water, sewer, public transit, roads, or bridges. It's unbelievable.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

I appreciate that comment about Newfoundland. I do represent the third largest Newfoundland city in the world, so I'm very appreciative of that.

I also have had some comments from many people who are concerned about the accountability on the funds that are going out the door. I know that you were steering the Federal Accountability Act that this government put forward as our first piece of legislation some three and a half years ago. I'm wondering if you could comment in relation to what the government is doing to ensure that accountability and that reputation the Conservative government has for accountability remains in force.

[John Baird, Conservative, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

First and foremost, accountability is important. The biggest built-in accountability measure is that we partner with provinces and municipalities. I just talked about Newfoundland. We have to sit down and work out which projects to support in conjunction with the province and with municipalities. When we're all putting a third up, it does lend itself to more accountability.

One of the things I have to say--and my friend from Quebec will appreciate this--is that it's not the federal government's job to micromanage the provinces and municipalities. We are funding partners; we are not proponents. In an overwhelming number of cases, we're not the ones holding the shovel; it's them. For example, Premier McGuinty brought to the first ministers meeting in January a five-inch binder of paperwork that was required after an announcement. It's our job to be financially supportive of public transit. It's not our job to run the public transit. It's not our job to try to micromanage it.

So we try to be more focused in our accountability mechanisms. But the biggest accountability measure by far is that it's, generally speaking, at least a dual or tripartite approach.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

Thank you, Minister.

[The Chair, Liberal, Derek Lee]

Thank you, Mr. Jean.

Mr. Martin, for an eight-minute round.

[Pat Martin, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Minister, for being here. My colleague noted you've been to eight-some-odd of these committee meetings trying to shed some light on the programs that you oversee. It's like you're on the talk show circuit or something, promoting a movie.