Evidence of meeting #85 for Public Accounts in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was ncc.
A video is available from Parliament.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Williamson
All right. Fair point.
You have a point of order. Badgering is not a point of order.
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Liberal
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
Brenda Shanahan Liberal Châteauguay—Lacolle, QC
It's also the manner in which Mr. Stewart is addressing the witness.
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An hon. member
It's your job as chair.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Williamson
Neither of those are points of order.
Mr. Blois, I give members great latitude here to both speak and press for answers. I recognize that Mr. Nussbaum has said he will provide that information. Mr. Stewart feels that an answer should have been forthcoming immediately. He's done his question, and now we will turn the floor back to Mr. Nussbaum.
I expect members to moderate themselves here, and I appreciate when they do that, but a good committee does involve some push-and-pull on both sides.
It's over to you, sir.
11:55 a.m.
Chief Executive Officer, National Capital Commission
Through you, Mr. Chair, I'd be very happy to provide accurate answers in writing to the questions posed as part of the list of questions that the member indicated would be forthcoming.
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Conservative
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
Jake Stewart Conservative Miramichi—Grand Lake, NB
Clearly, you've come totally unprepared.
Trudeau spoke in his memoir about how it was his childhood haunt and that he was astonished by the shape it was in.
Can you confirm if it was Prime Minister Trudeau who approved and directed the National Capital Commission to undertake more than $11 million in renovations—that we know of—to his beloved cottage that he detailed glowingly in his memoir?
11:55 a.m.
Chief Executive Officer, National Capital Commission
Mr. Chair, as I stated in my opening comments, the governance of the NCC is very clear—
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Conservative
11:55 a.m.
Chief Executive Officer, National Capital Commission
It's the board of directors that makes the decisions—
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Chief Executive Officer, National Capital Commission
The Prime Minister had no involvement.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
Jake Stewart Conservative Miramichi—Grand Lake, NB
Mr. Chair, I've asked a yes-or-no question. I expect a yes-or-no answer.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Williamson
Unfortunately, that is the time.
I appreciate, Mr. Stewart, that we don't always get what we want. I understand your frustration, but the witness has agreed to provide information and I'm sure he's going to do that.
Finally, I'm going to turn to Mr. Blois. You have the floor for five minutes again, please.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Williamson
Pardon me.
Mr. Badawey, pardon me. My scorecard is changing here by the minute.
November 21st, 2023 / 11:55 a.m.
Liberal
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Williamson
Mr. Badawey, you have the floor for five minutes, please.
It's nice to see you, sir. Thank you for joining us today.
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
Vance Badawey Liberal Niagara Centre, ON
Thank you. I appreciate it. It's great to join you folks here today for, I believe, the first time.
I want to dig a bit deeper into the management of the assets you're responsible for. I guess this would otherwise be known as the business of what you do. I'm sure, having done it for many years, it is something that you know very well.
With that, my first question is.... I would only assume you have an asset management plan for all of the assets you manage.
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
Vance Badawey Liberal Niagara Centre, ON
It's one thing to have an asset management plan. That sounds great—it is great. However, do you have the financing plan that's attached to that asset management plan?
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Chief Executive Officer, National Capital Commission
In short, yes.
The slightly longer answer is I mentioned that we have something called the "asset priority index". What that does is evaluate our assets and help us make investment decisions based on the condition of the asset in question.
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
Vance Badawey Liberal Niagara Centre, ON
That's correct. Basically, that's just prudent in terms of.... I come from the municipal sector, and one of the things we are disciplined to do is just that. Otherwise, you run into an infrastructure deficit and things, quite frankly, cost probably triple, if not quadruple, if you put them off by deferring a lot of that maintenance.
With that, you have your asset management plan—I want to spell this out so that everybody gets a visual of this—and you have the funding that goes along with it and you prioritize.
I'm assuming that this particular project is part of that asset management plan, as well as the funding allocation that would be attached to it. Also, because of its condition, it was prioritized.
