Government Operations Committee on Nov. 18th, 2010

[Pat Martin, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

I agree. But this is ten times the amount. But the participants actually went to Kananaskis and would probably be able to see with their own eyes the improvements made. You can't in all good conscience tell us that the G-8 delegates got to see those benefits.

[Bryce Conrad]

Just to be very clear, over 45% of the fund was allocated to three very large, significant projects that played a part in the specific holding of the summit: the North Bay airport, the G-8 summit centre, as well as the reconstruction of Deerhurst Drive.

[Pat Martin, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

What's 45% of $50 million—$22 million?

[Bryce Conrad]

We did not allocate the full $50 million. We allocated $45.3 million, I believe.

[Pat Martin, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

We're kind of splitting hairs here, but you see where we're going with this. There was still $20 million or $25 million spent on questionable things that were great news for the people of Sundridge, Deerhurst, Kearney, Severn Bridge, Dorset, and Parry Sound that had nothing to do with the G-8 summit.

You can tell we're not convinced. Again, I apologize for coming down hard on people like you, because we don't blame you at all for this.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Thank you, Mr. Martin.

Mr. Gourde, you have five minutes.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Conrad, the amount we are discussing this morning was included in the 2009 budget, you spoke about that.

[Bryce Conrad]

Exactly. It was included in the 2009 budget.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC]

Given our current situation as a minority government, on the occasion of the 2009 budget vote, an opposition party supported the government in its bid to have that budget adopted.

[Bryce Conrad]

I imagine so.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC]

I can tell you that all the Liberals voted in favour of the 2009 budget. Just now, someone asked where the decision came from. Ultimately, it is up to Parliament to decide how to grant a budget for this kind of event.

I would like to know the mechanics of money distribution. FedNor and Infrastructure Canada are somewhat similar to Infrastructure Canada and Economic Development Canada for the Quebec regions. You manage the funds, and FedNord distributes them to the participating municipalities. Please explain the mechanism to me, because I would like to know whether it is anything like what is being done in Quebec or if there is a difference.

[Bryce Conrad]

No, it is quite different in this case. We at Infrastructure Canada are the ones who manage the program. We do not have the manpower with the projects, it is really up to the regional municipalities to make their own projects, and it is up to us, Infrastructure Canada, to approve these projects, to review the payments and the bills, conduct reviews, etc. We at Infrastructure Canada are in charge of managing this; but the fund itself is not involved.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC]

All right. Thus the municipalities list their projects by order of priority, they submit them to Infrastructure Canada and Infrastructure Canada analyzes them and determines which ones are eligible. Is this how it works?

[Bryce Conrad]

Yes, in a certain way. The municipalities set the priorities for their projects while we, on our part, make sure that the projects and the expenditures that they incur are eligible for the fund.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC]

On what kind of occasions could FedNor intervene in certain files?

[France Pégeot]

FedNor's intervention in the legacy fund was minimal. Basically, it was an infrastructure program and we helped by putting the projects into a database and by making catalogues of them according to certain themes. The projects that were funded with the FedNor funds are somewhat similar to the projects that would have been funded by Economic Development Canada for the regions in Quebec. Thus, just as the money from Economic Development Canada must serve to fund projects in Quebec, the projects that are funded by FedNor must obviously be in northern Ontario. All the FedNor projects were funded from the existing budgets. No supplementary budget was granted to FedNor to fund these projects.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC]

Therefore, these projects would no doubt have been eligible, had there not been the summits of the G8 and of the G20, for FedNor envelopes during the 2009-2010 fiscal year.

[France Pégeot]

Theoretically, yes.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC]

Thank you very much.

[Blaine Calkins, Conservative, Wetaskiwin, AB]

I want to focus on a couple of items. My colleagues in the opposition have brought in an elaborate graph depicting the layout of the area.

Mr. Conrad, with respect to the $50 million allocated in the budget, could you confirm which budget that was? Was it 2009?

[Bryce Conrad]

It was budget 2009.

[Blaine Calkins, Conservative, Wetaskiwin, AB]

It was for legacy projects that were not necessarily directly related. All of you are adults, you're distinguished people with homes and so on. When you get invited to someone's home, you usually bring a gift, right? A bottle of wine, a box of chocolates? But following the opposition's line of questioning, the only appropriate things to bring to somebody's home if you're invited is a coat hanger and a roll of toilet paper, because the closet and the bathroom might have been the only services you made use of.

I'm making a bit of an observation here. But I want to talk a little about the timelines of the budget, because I think something is trying to be made of the fact that money was allocated for Huntsville but not for Toronto. My understanding is that when the $50 million was allocated, all we knew we were hosting was the G-8. I don't think the decision to host the G-20 was made until after that budgetary cycle had been completed, and before we got to the next budgetary cycle it would have been virtually impossible to put something together for a legacy project for Toronto.

Can you give us the timelines and tell us how that might have worked?

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Mr. Calkins, unfortunately you're out of time.

[Blaine Calkins, Conservative, Wetaskiwin, AB]

Do I not get five minutes?

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

The Conservatives had five minutes.