Government Operations Committee on Dec. 1st, 2011

[John Forster]

Yes, of $170 million.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, John McCallum]

Okay. And parliamentarians discovered that that had happened, in the case of $25 million, in 2010, and we discovered that at some point in 2011—

[John Forster]

No, excuse me. The first phase of the money that needed to be transferred for the fiscal year 2010-2011 was $25 million to Natural Resources Canada. That was in our supplementary estimates (B) last year, and that was voted and approved.

Not all of the $145 million has been transferred through the estimates process.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, John McCallum]

Has any of the $145 million been transferred?

[John Forster]

Yes, the $25 million for NRCan, and then in June, when Parliament approved the main estimates, there was an additional $25 million again for this fiscal year to Natural Resources Canada and $15 million to Economic Development Quebec for some of their projects. So you've now approved $40 million in June on top of the $25 million. That's $65 million. In the supplementaries in November, we have asked Parliament for approval to transfer about $5 million to Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada for the Beaufort, and that will be voted on and approved or rejected by Parliament.

The rest will be voted through the main estimates process each year on an annual basis.

In part III of our estimates in June, we identified the full cost of what was being proposed to be transferred out, and Parliament voted a first phase of that amount in the main estimates.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, John McCallum]

My time is soon to expire.

Can I just ask you? I think you mentioned four departments. I think in public documents we can only identify two, those being NRCan and Quebec Economic Agency.

[John Forster]

No, there are four priorities and three departments.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, John McCallum]

Can you tell us what the four departments are?

[John Forster]

Sure. There are three departments: Natural Resources Canada for their forest industry transformation program; there was Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions for a forestry program and a pipeline project in Thetford Mines; and Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada for environmental assessment work in the Beaufort.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, John McCallum]

Thank you very much. My time is up.

Scott Armstrong.

[Scott Armstrong, Conservative, Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, NS]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you all for your presentations.

I'm the only member from Atlantic Canada on this committee, so my questions are going to focus a lot on the east coast.

First, on the green infrastructure fund, you talked about some projects that have already been approved and some that are under way. Are any of those projects that have been approved located in Atlantic Canada?

[John Forster]

We did have one project with the City of Moncton for district energy heating systems. We had approved it, but in the end the city council decided they couldn't actually afford to go ahead with it, so they withdrew the project. At this point, there are no others in Atlantic Canada.

[Scott Armstrong, Conservative, Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, NS]

Have you had any applications for projects from municipalities or other bodies in Atlantic Canada?

[John Forster]

Yes. I couldn't give you a number or a listing, but I know for sure there were others.

[Scott Armstrong, Conservative, Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, NS]

Can you maybe provide me with a couple of reasons why they might have been rejected? What would cause problems getting funding, or are there a variety of reasons?

[John Forster]

There are a variety of reasons. It's a merit-based program there. It's not like the Building Canada fund, for which there is an allocation of funds per capita to each province and then we sit down and negotiate with the province which projects would be supported.

[Scott Armstrong, Conservative, Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, NS]

We have several projects. We have a tidal power project to put in some undersea cables. We have planned a massive hydro-power project from Lower Churchill Falls with undersea cables connecting Labrador to Newfoundland, and Newfoundland to Nova Scotia.

Has there been any contact with those bodies for funding from the green fund?

[John Forster]

I do not believe we've had any discussion around the Lower Churchill project, because the government had already extended loan guarantees for that project.

There was an early proposal for tidal power--

[Scott Armstrong, Conservative, Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, NS]

That was from the Bay of Fundy.

[John Forster]

--as a demonstration project, but we weren't in the business of doing demonstration projects under this fund. It doesn't invest in trials of technology and demonstration. It needs things to be more proven.

[Scott Armstrong, Conservative, Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, NS]

I'm quite familiar with the tidal project. When the tidal power project in the Bay of Fundy gets past the demonstration mode and they're actually looking to do some permanent things there, would that be the type of project the green infrastructure fund could fund? I'm not asking would you fund it, but could we look there for money?

[John Forster]

It could potentially be funded, but at this point there is very limited money left in the fund for any major new projects.

[Scott Armstrong, Conservative, Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, NS]

So right now there is limited money left from the fund, and not one project went to Atlantic Canada, as far as we know.

[John Forster]

We had the one with Moncton but they withdrew.

[Scott Armstrong, Conservative, Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, NS]

They had to back out. Okay. Thank you.

For Marine Atlantic you're asking for $1.5 million. What's that money for?