Thank you, Chair.
I want to move a motion that I tabled. I hope that all members of this committee will see the importance of the timely and urgent nature of this motion and therefore support it.
Given that the Trans Mountain expansion has cost taxpayers more than $34 billion when the government should have set legal and jurisdictional certainty for the private sector proponent to go ahead and get it built; given that it's five years behind; and given recent news about uncompetitive contracts, with $32 million going to McKinsey, concerns about shipments and still no details on divestiture to make Canadians whole for all the public dollars spent on the Trans Mountain expansion unnecessarily, including a potential 30% stake for indigenous communities, but which the government has still given no clarity on, I hope that all members will support this following motion to get the transparency, accountability and details that Canadians deserve.
I move:
Given that: a. The government is actively engaged in the process to sell the Trans Mountain expansion pipeline. b. The sale of the pipeline is expected to happen over the summer, before the committee will be able to reconvene. c. It is critical that members of this committee be apprised of the progress of the pipeline’s sale [since the government unnecessarily made Canadians owners of all of it]. The committee instructs the chair to schedule five meetings between July 8 and September 13 to hear updates from departmental officials on the sale of the pipeline.
Conservatives certainly believe that this is imperative and urgent. The government owes Canadians all these answers. We do hope that members of this committee will support this motion today for those reasons.