Thank you, Mr. Chair.
The reason we've submitted this amendment is for greater accountability by our ports. With this legislation there would be significant borrowing available to both the small and large ports, be it short- or long-term borrowing--billions of dollars, in fact. We've heard testimony that there are billions of dollars of required updating of our ports.
For port authorities there would also be access to at least one piece of government funding, through the border infrastructure fund of the Department of Transport.
We're requesting that this provide the opportunity for the Auditor General of Canada to audit a port authority. That doesn't mean it will automatically happen, but it will provide the opportunity for the Auditor General to examine those business practices, especially given that we will see greater applications from ports for government funding. I suspect we haven't seen all the programs fleshed out by the government. Those programs will of course be eligible for the Auditor General to look at. I think it is a better strategy to have the entire port looked at and audited by the Auditor General so they're not doing piecemeal auditing.
Hence this is submitted. I believe there would be greater accountability and greater confidence, especially when we look at security issues around the ports and the fact that they are going to have partnerships with third party operations and so forth. It will be done through the Auditor General, very sensitively, and through the Government of Canada. That's why this amendment has been submitted.