Evidence of meeting #27 for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was projects.
A recording is available from Parliament.
11:35 a.m.
Liberal
Sukh Dhaliwal Liberal Newton—North Delta, BC
So what are your members telling you? What should the date be instead of the March 31 deadline? What do you think would be reasonable for all the projects to be completed in Saskatchewan?
11:35 a.m.
Assistant Executive Director, Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities
I couldn't come up with an exact date. because even if it wasn't.... For any projects that aren't completed this fall, a lot of the times you can't get going on them first thing in the spring because of the wet conditions. So it could be almost on a case-by-case basis.
11:35 a.m.
Liberal
Sukh Dhaliwal Liberal Newton—North Delta, BC
So you want the government to come up with some kind of policy, then, so the projects don't stop on the March 31 deadline, right?
11:35 a.m.
Assistant Executive Director, Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities
Yes, in cases where it's out of the control of the municipality, and they can't do anything about things like weather.
11:35 a.m.
Liberal
11:35 a.m.
Liberal
Bonnie Crombie Liberal Mississauga—Streetsville, ON
Yes. I'd like to jump in as well.
Thank you very much. It's nice to meet you all. Thank you for presenting today.
Just quickly, what additional costs have been incurred by which municipalities to ensure that these projects are going to meet their deadlines? For instance, have there been overtime labour costs, increased costs of supplies and engineering, or other professional costs? How bad are the overruns to municipalities? Can you single out any specific municipality that's been particularly badly hit?
11:35 a.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Federation of Canadian Municipalities
We don't have a specific case. We know that it's very inconsistent across the country. It depends on local conditions. In some cases, there have been savings because of efficiencies in effective procurement procedures and implementation. In other cases, there have been some cost overruns because of shortages of labour and that sort of thing. But I don't have a specific example of one place. Our interest is in national level policy concerns, not individual concerns.
11:35 a.m.
Liberal
Bonnie Crombie Liberal Mississauga—Streetsville, ON
I have to tell you that I think the mayors are jumping up and down and screaming, and I'm sure that at least one of them has knocked on your door. Why don't you give us an example of one municipality that has been hit by significant overruns?
11:35 a.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Federation of Canadian Municipalities
Honestly, no one is jumping up and down and banging on our door about that issue. As I said, it varies from region to region based on local specificities.
11:35 a.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Federation of Canadian Municipalities
I don't have a specific example that I can give you.
11:35 a.m.
Liberal
Bonnie Crombie Liberal Mississauga—Streetsville, ON
You referenced that annual infrastructure moneys are inconsistent and needed and certainly can't fall on the backs of the property tax holder. What sorts of funds are needed annually for municipalities for decaying infrastructure? How do you project that they be funded once the infrastructure stimulus has been cut off? How do you see sustainable funding?
11:35 a.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Federation of Canadian Municipalities
I don't remember making that comment here in my presentation, but I understand the broad question.
You're all aware of what we have put forward: that there's a $123-billion infrastructure deficit at the municipal level in this country. But as we have said, we need to take the time now to do the planning, the inventory, and to take stock of the situation so we can work out together what makes most sense in terms of a program going into the future.
That requires analysis. It requires a dialogue with the three orders of government about the magnitude and the kind of programming that's going to make sense to respond to this. We don't come to this table with a specific dollar figure, a specific ask, just as in the pre-budget submission we did not make a specific ask. We have said that fallow periods are here for the fiscal arrangement in this country, so let's sit down and do the planning so we can look to the long term and address this over the longer term.
11:35 a.m.
Bloc
Michel Guimond Bloc Montmorency—Charlevoix—Haute-Côte-Nord, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for your presentation.
Mr. Carlton, you talked about three things the Federation of Canadian Municipalities expects from the federal government: flexibility, deadline adjustment and close collaboration with the Quebec government in order to find a solution. In your answer to my Liberal colleague, you talked about the third aspect—working closely with the Quebec government.
Why would this issue concern Quebec?
11:35 a.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Federation of Canadian Municipalities
Thank you for your question. It is simple. In Quebec, negotiations between the federal government and the provincial government pose a particularly big problem. There are significant delays, longer than in the other provinces and territories. So the projects in Quebec are lagging behind the projects in the rest of the provinces and territories. That is why we are saying that we have to focus our efforts on the project issues in Quebec.
11:40 a.m.
Bloc
Michel Guimond Bloc Montmorency—Charlevoix—Haute-Côte-Nord, QC
In your answer to my colleague Mr. Dhaliwal's question on the number of projects that have to be completed by the March 31, 2011 deadline, you talked about 70%. So 30% of the projects, which is not a new figure to me, might not meet the deadline. Out of the 30%, what is the province-by-province breakdown?
Your colleague from the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities talked about the specific problem in Saskatchewan. But is it true that the vast majority of the 30% of projects that cannot be completed are in Quebec?
11:40 a.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Federation of Canadian Municipalities
Broadly speaking, I think that the vast majority of projects are in Quebec. We don't have the figures for each province, but, as I said, the problems are worse in Quebec than anywhere else in the country. I know that you are going to have the opportunity to speak with the Union des municipalités du Québec, which will probably be able to provide you with more accurate figures than we have.
11:40 a.m.
Bloc
Michel Guimond Bloc Montmorency—Charlevoix—Haute-Côte-Nord, QC
Mr. Harvey, I also read in the papers that the Saskatchewan government was conducting negotiations with the federal government.
Is the Saskatchewan government currently making claims to push the deadline back?
11:40 a.m.
Assistant Executive Director, Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities
You'd have to ask the provincial government. I don't know whether they are or not.
11:40 a.m.
Assistant Executive Director, Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities
Right.
11:40 a.m.
Bloc
Michel Guimond Bloc Montmorency—Charlevoix—Haute-Côte-Nord, QC
I'll come back to you, Mr. Carlton. I had the opportunity to ask questions a few times in the House and I would like to know what you heard.
What are the kind of problems in Quebec that make it impossible to complete the work? Federal-provincial negotiations were mentioned, but are there other problems specific to Quebec?
11:40 a.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Federation of Canadian Municipalities
According to my information, the problem is that there is not enough time to complete the projects because the deadline was set beforehand. So the delays are not specifically related to the weather or other things; it is just the timing...
