Transport Committee on Oct. 17th, 2011

[Paul Moist]

Yes, they'd be a combination of, increasingly, real estate; fixed income instruments, including ones issued by your government; and equity markets.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Nepean—Carleton, ON]

I appreciate your acknowledging equity markets as one of the aspects of a pension portfolio for unionized workers, because your members pay corporate taxes. The return from those equity holdings comes only after the corporate taxes are paid.

You mentioned air travel. I know you're not the union responsible; well, in fact you are in some cases. The members there have a pension plan about which there are concerns. Canada Post came before our Parliament in the spring. The number one holding of the Canada Post pension plan is TD Bank, $200 million in holdings. When you propose to raise taxes on businesses, you're actually raising taxes on your unionized members and their pension plan. So I would encourage you to rethink that proposal as a funding method for the increased spending that you're proposing on this and other issues.

[Paul Moist]

All I’d say in response to that is that I appreciate your intervention.

When I watched the Minister of Transport speak in Halifax in June to 2,000 mayors and councillors, he gave every indication that in this new era of a majority government, the Building Canada fund was almost committed and that there would be governmental response to the legitimate concerns being expressed by mayors and councillors, one of which is public transit. Those mayors and councillors were, as they always are, very respectful to all the political leaders who attended in front of them. This year the Prime Minister couldn't attend, but the Minister of Transport received a very polite response.

Those mayors and councillors are saying the same thing that we're saying here today: there's a huge municipal infrastructure deficit that affects the quality of life in communities everywhere, and it needs attention, not exclusively from the feds, but the feds have to be part of the solution. I agree with their comments and the polite but firm position they took in Halifax, and that they actually took here a week ago with you.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Nepean—Carleton, ON]

I agree that we have a role to play, and we are playing it. We have the gas tax fund, the GST rebate, record investment through the Building Canada program, and of course, on top of all that, the infrastructure stimulus fund and the overall economic action plan, which funded 28,000 incremental projects across the country. So we have definitely played a role. At the same time, I think it's fair for parliamentarians to ask any stakeholder group that comes before this committee asking for more funding to suggest sources of revenue to pay for it.

[Paul Moist]

It's very fair. We'll give you tomorrow's submission tomorrow.

[The Chair, Conservative, Merv Tweed]

With that, I thank you for being here. I appreciate your comments, and we look forward to more conversation as we go.

[Jamie Nicholls, NDP, Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC]

Mr. Chair, it's ten minutes before adjournment time. Why are we adjourning early?

[The Chair, Conservative, Merv Tweed]

It's six minutes, and I have a couple of issues to bring forward to the committee.

Thank you. I appreciate your time.

I'll ask the committee members just to sit tight for one second. I want to advise the committee that I've received a letter from a gentleman who has sat on the transportation committee in Europe in the European Parliament for several years. He's coming to Canada and will be here on November 3. I'm going to ask the clerk to send out a note. He would like to meet with us. It's not necessarily a committee day, so it's going to be a non-mandatory committee meeting. It will have translation; we'll carry on that way. I just wanted to make you aware of the date and watch for the calendar to come out.

Mr. Coderre, on a point of order.

[Denis Coderre, Liberal, Bourassa, QC]

When we had our meetings we spoke about the way we should have some flexibility as a committee. There are two things I would like to talk about.

I am in agreement that we have a meeting on November 3 and so on, but I think that we have to adjust to certain realities.

First, I am still waiting to know when Minister Lebel is supposed to meet with us, on which date. I think it's important that we begin to see his face. He made a few announcements and I would like to see him. I have some good questions for him.

Moreover, there are certain things happening out there. Last October 7, there was an illegal strike at the Toronto Airport. I am concerned about the working conditions of workers, but I also wonder what went on there. Why an illegal strike? What happened? The relationship between the Garda company and the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority is important. I don't know if my colleagues want to talk about this, but I am proposing that we do so.

And so I need to know the date of Minister Lebel's visit. We can ask him some questions about that. I am hearing certain things about Garda and about the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority. It is our role to ask questions in a timely way on what happened. I would like to take the opportunity to ask the Garda representatives—this could be people from their union or simply members of Garda—about the current working conditions.

I don't know what my colleagues think about this. I accept that I can put my little question in every hour, but there are some current realities we are facing. Perhaps the time has come to consider this type of file also with close attention.

[The Chair, Conservative, Merv Tweed]

Is there discussion around that?

I can advise the committee that I have sent a written request to the minister and I'll follow up again through the clerk to confirm a day.

On the second part, I don't want to put words in your mouth, but you're suggesting we might want to host a meeting where Garda and CATSA would be invited, to find out what happened particularly on that particular point.

[Denis Coderre, Liberal, Bourassa, QC]

Yes, that's correct.

Firstly, I would like to know what the working conditions are.

Secondly, there was an illegal strike. This is an essential service and this has an impact on consumers. Nevertheless, I think it would be relevant for us to be able to ask questions about this. I don't know if we need to submit a motion. What do my colleagues think about this? As a federal member of Parliament, I want to know what is going on.

[The Chair, Conservative, Merv Tweed]

Are there any comments?

I guess that would be the question. Do we want Mr. Coderre to present a motion?

[Denis Coderre, Liberal, Bourassa, QC]

Do you need a 48-hour notice? I propose that we invite people from the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority, CATSA, and from Garda so that they can explain what happened last October 7. We should also take the opportunity to find out about the working conditions.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Nepean—Carleton, ON]

We would need notice for that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Merv Tweed]

We would need a written...unless the committee would agree completely today. If not, we can ask for a 48-hour notice.

[Denis Coderre, Liberal, Bourassa, QC]

Do the members of the committee agree?

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Nepean—Carleton, ON]

We would be in agreement with the 48-hour period.

[The Chair, Conservative, Merv Tweed]

Okay. If you submit it, I'll make sure we set something aside at the end for that.

[Denis Coderre, Liberal, Bourassa, QC]

I will submit a motion which you will have before you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Merv Tweed]

Thank you.

Ms. Chow.

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

Not that I would debate it, but I wouldn't mind seeing the wording. I think there's a bigger issue. Maybe it's not just a company, it's also the authority that signed the agreement, etc. It's fairly complex.

I'll leave it in your hands. Once we see the motions, we may have to think about that. It's not necessarily just one thing; it's more complex than that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Merv Tweed]

I'll ask Mr. Coderre. If he wants to proceed with this, we'll look at a motion on Wednesday.

Is there any other business?

Ms. Chow.

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

Eventually we should have a discussion, in terms of this study, on how long and when, and what area we want to get into. There are areas we should focus on, but it's probably best if it's the committee as a whole for that kind of discussion, dwelling on one or two specific areas, such as whether it's amortization, what kind of system, gas tax versus capital funding.

There are different ways we could discuss different areas of this strategy. Right now it's all lumped into one, which is fine, but for me, what would be really helpful is if in two or three areas it could be the committee of the whole, with people we invite, and we could actually have an in-depth discussion and not just the normal bouncing back and forth to different.... That's fine, but you touch on something and then you go on to something else, and you never really have enough opportunity to get into it. Sometimes we might agree with each other, but then the third questioner would move the discussion to another angle, which is sometimes really frustrating.

So I think there might be consensus on some areas we want to really look at, whether it's big cities, smaller cities, or smaller towns, that kind of thing. What's top down? What's from the grassroots up? There are different areas.

We could even have an informal discussion on that, Mr. Chair, so that we make the time that we spend here even more productive.

[The Chair, Conservative, Merv Tweed]

We have invited guests for Wednesday. After that what I'll do is send out a notice to the committee as to the particular day. We are filling it in for the next couple of weeks, but I'll make sure we set aside a discussion time for the entire committee within the next two weeks.

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

Maybe a committee of the whole doesn't necessarily have to be the same format. You would have a better discussion that way.