Evidence of meeting #35 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was money.
A video is available from Parliament.
Marcia Santiago Executive Director, Expenditure Management Sector, Treasury Board Secretariat
There is some amount in this for track improvement, but we don't have a precise figure for that. We can get that.
NDP
Anne-Marie Day NDP Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC
I would like to know those numbers.
In Quebec, I think that VIA Rail leases the tracks from CN. Since CN is a private company, are we to understand that public funds will be transferred to private companies to repair the tracks?
Comptroller General of Canada, Office of the Comptroller General of Canada
The funding that would go to VIA—and I'm sorry, I believe I said CP earlier, but I think I'm dating myself here; it is CN. Thank you for that.
VIA would have two choices. They could fund the repairs themselves, or they could in theory decide to give that money to another organization to do the repairs. That's a better question for VIA to answer in terms of how they're going to spend those funds and whether it would be themselves or through another organization.
NDP
Anne-Marie Day NDP Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC
The question I am asking is about the amount going to track repair, the amount that Ms. Santiago has to get for us. If I understand correctly, that means that VIA Rail leases the tracks and, on top of that, pays to repair them. Is that really the case?
Comptroller General of Canada, Office of the Comptroller General of Canada
That is a choice that VIA Rail has.
If VIA actually owns part of the track or if they're funding this through their arrangement with another organization.... We'd have to do a follow-up to see what percentage of the funding actually relates to rail repair and who owns the rail. We'll do both.
NDP
Anne-Marie Day NDP Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC
Still in the section on VIA Rail, it mentions small stations and renovating stations, small or large. Are there any plans to shut down or abandon any stations in the next budget?
Comptroller General of Canada, Office of the Comptroller General of Canada
To my knowledge, this is based on repair for existing train stations. This is not funding to abandon existing stations; it's about repairing their existing asset inventory. To my knowledge, there's not any funding in here that is related to decommissioning of train stations.
NDP
Anne-Marie Day NDP Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC
So can we conclude that no additional stations will be decommissioned, as has been happening for several decades?
Comptroller General of Canada, Office of the Comptroller General of Canada
That's a better question for VIA in terms of what they've done for their operational plan. As I said, there's no funding in here related to decommissioning, but I can't speak to what has been done in the past.
Anne-Marie Day NDP Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC
I also see that improvements to infrastructure are planned. What infrastructure is that?
Comptroller General of Canada, Office of the Comptroller General of Canada
This would be the categories around passenger railcars, the stations themselves, and signalling systems on the rail lines themselves. Those are the big three that I would highlight for you.
NDP
Anne-Marie Day NDP Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC
So there will be improvements to infrastructure and stations.
Comptroller General of Canada, Office of the Comptroller General of Canada
Under those three categories, yes.
NDP
Anne-Marie Day NDP Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC
Thank you.
I would like to talk to you about something that Pat Martin—
NDP
Anne-Marie Day NDP Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will wait for the next round.
NDP
The Chair NDP Pierre-Luc Dusseault
Okay, thank you.
Mr. O'Connor, the floor is yours, for five minutes.
Gordon O'Connor Carleton—Mississippi Mills, CPC
Mr. Matthews, the Treasury Board is requesting $151.7 million essentially for salary increases, yet over the last few years, my recollection is that thousands of positions have been eliminated from the government and every time you eliminate positions, you're saving money.
I don't want to do the estimate, but we're into hundreds of millions of dollars saved on salaries, etc. Why do we have to provide another $151.7 million, when you've already scooped up hundreds of millions of dollars?
Comptroller General of Canada, Office of the Comptroller General of Canada
There are a couple of points to make here.
The member is quite right that there were reductions made. The biggest one I would highlight is budget 2011 where there was a goal set of $4 billion in reductions. Those reductions were achieved and departmental budgets were reduced. So we took that money away from departments.
Now, life goes on; there have been new collective agreements and some wage increases, and if I was to generalize across the board it's about 2%. We we're funding departments for those wage increases. We take money away when we make reductions, and their budgets were reduced. When there are increases that departments are not asked to fund themselves, we give them funding basically to hold them whole and keep them harmless for those wage reductions for the last year.
Had we not taken away and reduced their budgets, you'd be quite right that they could actually absorb it, but the fact is that departmental budgets were reduced significantly because of the exercises. Based on the latest round of negotiations from last year, we're putting some money back into their votes.
Carleton—Mississippi Mills, CPC
My next question has to do with the Manuge class action lawsuit.
How much money is involved in this? How much money does the Government of Canada have to pay out and where are we in the process? How much money has been paid out?
Comptroller General of Canada, Office of the Comptroller General of Canada
This is the second and final piece. There was a big piece last year in supplementary estimates (B). Maybe I'll ask my colleague to see if she can dig out that number. This represents the final payment of $190 million. The $50 million is actually the final negotiated piece around the cost of living adjustment. Then the $140 million is actually to reimburse the insurance company, because they basically flowed the funds in advance.
As to the total value of the settlements, maybe we can get back to you in a few minutes with that, because I'm sure we have it here somewhere and this is the last piece.
Carleton—Mississippi Mills, CPC
My third question has to do with Heritage. I see there's a commitment of $65 million for three facilities in Toronto.
Do you know how much money the Government of Canada is committing to the Pan Am Games? Is $65 million what we're committing, or is that just a portion?
Comptroller General of Canada, Office of the Comptroller General of Canada
The $65 million is the portion that's in supplementary estimates (B). There have been other funds flowed for that event. The $65 million in this case relates to three facilities: University of Toronto, York University, and the velodrome in Milton. That's what this money is for. There may have been some other funds committed in total, but this is just this piece.