Thank you.
Mr. Minister, congratulations again on your new position. I look forward to seeing you before this committee on issues of interest to us.
I want to address the issue on page 4 of your presentation today. You made reference to providing new federal funding of $8.5 billion for a variety of infrastructure programs. You mention the Pacific gateway initiative. I am particularly interested in that.
You comment on the next page that, “In an era when global supply chain management drives the economic success of nations, integrated and efficient transportation systems are a crucial element in economic productivity.” Of course that is what Pacific gateway is about.
My concern is that I am wondering about the details of the moneys that you're going to be putting into Pacific gateway, and whether those moneys will in fact be coming from other infrastructure programs that were targeted for other purposes--for municipal or rural, for example--in the areas. I would not want to see in my case, in the province of British Columbia, that money drawn from other funds when the original intention was that these would come through Pacific gateway.
In the previous government I worked with Minister Emerson, when he was still Minister Emerson, on the issue of the gateway. We committed $590 million over a five-year period, with $190 million for initial programs and $400 million to be determined as priorities were decided by the stakeholders in the area.
Your government's plan for the Pacific gateway is some $239 million over that five years. It talks about $590 million over eight years, but there is a gap there of some $351 million in the first five years.
When I asked this question in the House of your colleague, Minister Emerson, his comment was that, first of all, if more money.... He suggested a lot of these projects may not have been able to go ahead at the same timing--that was their supposition, but that wasn't my understanding when we discussed this initially--and if money was needed, it would be made available. I would like to know where it would come from.
Second, the suggestion was that there was infrastructure money, and I see the reference again in your comments. Where is that money going to come from?
Your comment about the global supply chain mentioned that it is a crucial element. I would point out to you that two areas in particular will make the gateway successful. The gateway is a pan-western Canada initiative; in fact, it is Canada-wide. It is the access to the Pacific Rim for all of Canada, so it is not just a British Columbia or Vancouver or Prince Rupert issue. To make that successful, we need to have the trucking routes to be able to move goods and services. Some the of the gateway money committed by the previous government was for some projects early on. Are those projects still planning to go, in terms of transport? I am referring to the rail grade separations and the Pitt River bridge, for example.
The other issue is rail infrastructure. We need to ensure that rail companies.... I met recently with the Railway Association of Canada. They are concerned about a decision about policies that would enable them to be competitive and efficient. We have to serve both the Fairview port in Prince Rupert and the Port of Vancouver.
We have a problem now: the capacity of new container business growth on the Pacific Rim is such that if we don't provide for the growth in those areas, and the rail systems to connect and move the goods to other parts of Canada and indeed to the United States, we will have that container business bypass us and go to the U.S. ports and Mexico. The U.S. ports are already expanding in anticipation of that. We don't want to lose that opportunity for Canada.
I would appreciate your comments on that.