Transport Committee on Dec. 2nd, 2009

[John Baird, Conservative, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

We're not going to claw back over that—

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

So if they're only 50% complete, you'd take back 50% of your money at that time?

[John Baird, Conservative, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

We wouldn't take it back because we would never have given it to them.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

So they're involved in a project and they're 50% complete and you're going to withdraw your 50% of the money.

[John Baird, Conservative, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

We've always said that we would pay, in most cases, a third of the costs incurred up until April 1, and if the municipality only got half of it done, they wouldn't get the other half. No. That's quite correct. But we're not going to claw it back through the gas tax.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

I have one question on funding to promote energy development in Canada's north through investments to the Mackenzie gas project, with this extra $2.5 million this year. What's that for?

[Yaprak Baltacioglu]

The government as a whole has committed some resources to preparations for the Mackenzie gas project. This is money to go to our prairie and northern region so they can continue with the surveillance that's related to this project.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

This project is going to see the environmental assessment complete toward the end of this month. Is Transport Canada still actively inspecting or doing studies? What are they doing out in the field right now that would entail us spending more money in this fiscal year?

[Yaprak Baltacioglu]

There's increased aviation activity, for example, so we have to make sure that our inspectors are inspecting that activity. If you would like, sir, I could get you the full breakdown of its—

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

Increased aviation activity related to the Mackenzie gas project? I don't think so. There's no active work on the ground going on with that project right now. That project is in environmental assessment. Everyone is waiting for the completion of that report.

You're spending $2.5 million on inspecting additional flights that are going into this area related to the Mackenzie gas project or...? How does this work?

[Yaprak Baltacioglu]

If you don't mind.... There are two ways of doing this. I can't give you the answer, because I don't have the details of it, but I have my ADM responsible for this particular thing. We will be here for the second hour and we can answer it then. Or—

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

That's good. Yes. I just want to go on, then--

[John Baird, Conservative, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

We can get your answer right now.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

No, that's okay. I'll wait for that answer.

I want to talk about Marine Atlantic Incorporated. You've had special examination reports come out showing that for the past four years you've run consistently over budget with this operation.

Is the department considering funding Marine Atlantic on a realistic basis in the next year? Are you going to continue to look at supplementaries as a way of topping up the cost of the operation by about 20% ?

[Rob Merrifield, Conservative, Yellowhead, AB]

Marine Atlantic has an obligation to recover 60% to 65%. They're actually not doing that. It's into the low fifties at 52% or 53%, in there somewhere. The chronic problem with Marine Atlantic is the deterioration of the fleet and the lack of ability to have capacity on reserve so they can deal with weather disturbances and problems they actually have with the fleet, to try to catch up.

As an example, the Caribou and the Smallwood, which are two workhorses, were down respectively 22 and 24 days over this summer simply because they're getting older. They're not reliable in the sense of making sure they can keep up with their workload. Because of that it's costing more to keep that fleet in operation.

We have looked at bringing on a new vessel. We did that this last year, in April, with the Atlantic Vision. It has been very much a success. In fact, I was out there about a month ago talking to all of the users of Marine Atlantic. Without exception, they said that if they could make any recommendations it would be to have more of these kinds of vessels, because it added capacity. Actually, even in the middle of a recession, it —

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

Well, this report says that you haven't agreed on a capital replacement plan yet.

[Rob Merrifield, Conservative, Yellowhead, AB]

That's right.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

But this is a constitutional obligation of the Government of Canada. It's costing you over 20% of the budget and you haven't moved forward with a capital replacement plan.

[Rob Merrifield, Conservative, Yellowhead, AB]

The first phase was bringing on the Atlantic Vision. I was there to discern whether this was the right fit for Marine Atlantic. That was always phase one.

There's no question that they have to do more with Marine Atlantic to fulfill the obligation and to allow them the opportunity to run in the black in the sense of meeting their obligations, that 60% to 65% recovery, and that is ongoing. We're assessing exactly what is the best way to move into stage two, a refurbishment of the fleet, and whether that's to invest in the existing fleet or to do other options. We're examining all of those options at the present time.

[John Baird, Conservative, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

Perhaps I could just jump in as well. There's no doubt that the audit report is cause for great concern. We're currently reflecting on what we've heard.

[The Chair, Conservative, Merv Tweed]

Mr. Mayes.

[Colin Mayes, Conservative, Okanagan—Shuswap, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Ministers and your departments, for being here today.

As a western Canadian representing the province of British Columbia, I'd like to talk a little about the northwest transmission line project and the $130 million investment in that line. Of course, that is going to help insofar as the collection of run-of-river projects and will limit the footprint of transmission corridors in British Columbia. Another project in Yukon, the Mayo B hydro facility, at $71 million, is going to take a number of diesel generation plants off the grid in Yukon.

Were these priorities set out because of the great initiative as far as greening and making sure they're environmentally friendly are concerned? When you made those decisions, did that have a big impact on these types of projects?

[John Baird, Conservative, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

I'm a big supporter of both of those projects. Frankly, Premier Fentie was a strong advocate for the Mayo B project. He has spoken to a good number of us around town about the project. I guess that was one of the ideas behind the establishment of the green infrastructure fund. Obviously, those types of projects are more major projects that couldn't be completed in two years and that's why there's a five-year window for that fund.

The one in northwestern British Columbia is another great example. The Yukon will be almost entirely off diesel power in terms of percentage in a big way, so it's exciting to reduce the carbon emissions and to have cleaner air. It will also facilitate economic growth and development.

The one in northwestern British Columbia is a great example as well, though, of getting away from diesel power generation and getting more hydro, of expanding the grid so that there's more clean energy on it. It will also be a great hope for economic development in that part of the province. Nathan Cullen represents the area. The NDP member represents the area for most of northwest British Columbia.

It's going to be a great win for all of B.C. and, frankly, the country, because if you get the expansion of the private sector and the job creation, it's going to help all of us. Whether you live there or in the Lower Mainland, it's good news for B.C.

I think The northern one also fits in with the Prime Minister's commitment and vision for northern Canada. Frankly, it was under Premier Fentie's leadership. He pushed hard for this in the budget and that was the whole idea behind the creation of the fund; now it can do a number of things on the environment. I'm very big on that. It's great. Any chance we have to expand hydro capacity.... Obviously you need it through generation, but also, the capacity to transmit it should be taken advantage of. It is one of the great resources we have in Canada, but there are not unlimited amounts of it everywhere.

[Colin Mayes, Conservative, Okanagan—Shuswap, BC]

Turning to the supplementary estimates, they seek to have an additional $197 million for the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority. The vast majority of these funds, $190 million, would be to support the development of aviation security plans and a passenger assessment system. What are some specific examples of these funds and where they would be spent?

[Rob Merrifield, Conservative, Yellowhead, AB]

CATSA is actually doing a very good job of keeping our passengers safe.

There are two pockets of money, for a total, as you said, of $197.6 million. The first and smaller pocket is $6.9 million. It's the re-profiling of the 2008-09 fiscal year capital funding. It will go into the expansion of Calgary airport's hold bag screening, which was behind schedule. It also completes the purchase of the portable screening units at the Olympics and expands restricted identification cards. That's where that pocket of money goes.

The larger pocket of money, $190.7 million, is to carry out the screening obligations that are provided in the 2009 capital plan. It includes replacing a lot of the old X-ray scanners by a multi-view scanner. That's one of our problems: we have these older technologies. The new advanced technologies will allow much more vivid identification in the handbag screening process.

That's where we're going. We're keeping our Olympics about the athletes, as the first thing, and then making sure that the rest of the country keeps up to standards that are changing as we speak in the U.S., Europe, and other countries, so that we don't become a weak link.