Evidence of meeting #33 for Industry, Science and Technology in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was regulatory.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Philippe Noël  Senior Director, Public and Economic Affairs, Fédération des chambres de commerce du Québec
Jan Waterous  Managing Partner, Norquay Ski and Sightseeing Resort
Tim Priddle  Owner, The WoodSource Inc.
James van Raalte  Executive Director, Regulatory Policy and Cooperation Directorate, Regulatory Affairs Sector, Treasury Board Secretariat
Kaylie Tiessen  National Representative, Research Department, Unifor
Mathieu Lavigne  Senior Consultant, Public and Economic Affairs, Fédération des chambres de commerce du Québec

12:45 p.m.

Executive Director, Regulatory Policy and Cooperation Directorate, Regulatory Affairs Sector, Treasury Board Secretariat

James van Raalte

That would depend on each set of regulations.

12:45 p.m.

Conservative

Pierre Poilievre Conservative Carleton, ON

Give an average.

12:45 p.m.

Executive Director, Regulatory Policy and Cooperation Directorate, Regulatory Affairs Sector, Treasury Board Secretariat

James van Raalte

Some regulations can be one line; some can be hundreds of pages.

12:45 p.m.

Conservative

Pierre Poilievre Conservative Carleton, ON

How many regulations do we have? You said there are 3,000 sets of regulations. What is the total number of individual regulations?

12:45 p.m.

Executive Director, Regulatory Policy and Cooperation Directorate, Regulatory Affairs Sector, Treasury Board Secretariat

James van Raalte

I don't have that count, Madam Chair.

12:45 p.m.

Conservative

Pierre Poilievre Conservative Carleton, ON

The Treasury Board Secretariat is supposed to be watching all this and is supposed to be the guard dog. I don't know if you can hear my dog barking at the front door right now, but you guys are supposed to be the guard dog, just like him. I wish he'd bark less, but anyway, I hope you can find out how many regulations Canadians have to follow and how much they're paying, and report it back to the committee for the purpose of this study.

Thank you very much for your testimony.

Madam Waterous, we have very little time, but as I understand it you built a parking lot; you want to build a gondola so you can connect people from some distance away, right into the heart of the town of Banff. Is that right?

12:45 p.m.

Managing Partner, Norquay Ski and Sightseeing Resort

Jan Waterous

Yes. Our project has many components. One is the return of passenger rail; one is aerial transit from the station up to our hill; one is intercept parking, and we're working with our community and three levels of government to do other things more broadly that help with the mobility of visitors throughout the park in a green manner.

12:45 p.m.

Conservative

Pierre Poilievre Conservative Carleton, ON

Just to keep it to the tangibles, you built this 500-car lot, and you want to be able to transport people from that lot to the village of Banff without having to bring their cars into the town. Parks Canada has not approved that gondola?

12:45 p.m.

Managing Partner, Norquay Ski and Sightseeing Resort

Jan Waterous

No, it has not. With respect to the intercept parking lot, we are now asking for Parks to provide free shuttles to take people from our lot to points of interest throughout the park, so they don't need to rent a car once they get here by train and/or park their car in the lot.

12:45 p.m.

Conservative

Pierre Poilievre Conservative Carleton, ON

You also want rail connection between the Calgary airport and Banff. Is that right?

12:45 p.m.

Managing Partner, Norquay Ski and Sightseeing Resort

Jan Waterous

Yes, that's correct.

12:45 p.m.

Conservative

Pierre Poilievre Conservative Carleton, ON

You're willing to invest your own money to make that happen.

12:45 p.m.

Managing Partner, Norquay Ski and Sightseeing Resort

Jan Waterous

If need be, yes.

12:45 p.m.

Conservative

Pierre Poilievre Conservative Carleton, ON

Has Parks signed off on that proposal?

12:45 p.m.

Managing Partner, Norquay Ski and Sightseeing Resort

Jan Waterous

Parks is not involved in the decision-making there. It's other agencies like the Government of Alberta and the Canada Infrastructure Bank, where we're getting some of our funding, etc.

12:45 p.m.

Conservative

Pierre Poilievre Conservative Carleton, ON

What approvals are you waiting for or have you not received from Parks Canada? Could you summarize them?

12:50 p.m.

Managing Partner, Norquay Ski and Sightseeing Resort

Jan Waterous

The gondola is going to be resubmitted; we're waiting. We want to build another 900-stall intercept lot on the other side of the tracks for more intercept parking, so we can move Banff to a car-free national park. That's the ultimate goal.

12:50 p.m.

Conservative

Pierre Poilievre Conservative Carleton, ON

You want to make Banff car-free and emissions-free—exactly what we're told the government wants.

12:50 p.m.

Managing Partner, Norquay Ski and Sightseeing Resort

Jan Waterous

You got it.

12:50 p.m.

Conservative

Pierre Poilievre Conservative Carleton, ON

But Parks Canada—of all departments—is standing in the way. How ironic.

12:50 p.m.

Managing Partner, Norquay Ski and Sightseeing Resort

12:50 p.m.

Conservative

Pierre Poilievre Conservative Carleton, ON

It looks like we have gatekeepers everywhere.

12:50 p.m.

Managing Partner, Norquay Ski and Sightseeing Resort

Jan Waterous

We're looking for some partnership.

12:50 p.m.

Conservative

Pierre Poilievre Conservative Carleton, ON

Agreed. You should have it. And thanks for what you're doing.

12:50 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Sherry Romanado

My apologies. Not only is Parks Canada in the way, but so is the chair. The chair is going to move to the next speaker.

MP Erskine-Smith, you have the last five-minute round.