Good morning, Mr. Chair, and committee members.
My name is Thao Pham. I'm the assistant deputy minister for the federal Montreal bridges with Infrastructure Canada. Joining me this morning are Marc Brazeau, director general of the new bridge for the St. Lawrence with Infrastructure Canada, and Nicholas Wilkshire, who is the senior counsel with Justice Canada.
Thank you for the opportunity to give you an overview of the new bridge for the St. Lawrence act. As you probably know, based on an engineering expert report that was produced in 2010, the existing Champlain Bridge in Montreal was found to be at the end of its useful life. Following the recommendations of a pre-feasibility study, the Government of Canada announced on October 5, 2011, that it will replace the existing bridge. In December 2013 the Government of Canada announced that the construction of the new bridge for the St. Lawrence will be accelerated and the new bridge will be in service in 2018.
The Government of Canada also announced that the bridge will be built through a public-private partnership. A business case showed that a public-private partnership approach will deliver better value for money for taxpayers and will guarantee that the project is delivered on time and on budget.
In the context of the accelerated timeline for the new bridge, this act will ensure that the authorities required for the implementation of all aspects of the bridge are in place. The new bridge for the St. Lawrence act will provide as much legal certainty as possible in order to avoid delays due to different legal interpretations, or the potential charge of premiums by bidders to account for areas of uncertainty.
In short, the main objective of the New Bridge for the St. Lawrence Act is to provide the certainty and approvals required so that the project can be completed without delays.
The key legislative provisions of this proposed act include the following.
First, the act will designate the minister to be appointed by the Governor in Council to be the minister responsible for the administration of this act. The act will also declare the new bridge for the St. Lawrence River project to be for the general advantage of Canada, thereby making it a federal structure. Given the fact that the new bridge for the St. Lawrence will be an intraprovincial bridge, this project could be considered as provincial work. This clause therefore ensures that the Government of Canada has the jurisdiction and control over the bridge, as opposed to the province, which could otherwise have jurisdiction over a provincial work.
The act will also authorize the minister responsible to enter into any agreement relating to the bridge or related work with any person or with the Government of Quebec or any political subdivision of that government, for example, the municipalities within the Quebec province. Examples of these agreements include relocation of public utilities, exchange of information, and all of the collaboration necessary for the preparation work.
The act will provide the minister responsible with the authority to fix tolls and collect tolls on the new bridge through regulations. The act will provide the Minister of Public Works and Government Services with the authority to enter into an agreement with a third party, in this case a private partner, as the operator for the design, construction, and operation of the bridge.
It is the intention to get all of the approvals for this project. However, given that we don't yet know all of the possible permits that might be required, there is a clause in this act that provides the Governor in Council authority to exempt the project from some federal permits if it is deemed in the public interest to do so. In that case, the exemption would have to be done on a case-by-case basis. So it would be an ad hoc exemption.
Finally, the act exempts the project from the application of the User Fees Act and the Bridges Act. The intention of these exemptions is again to avoid legal uncertainties and duplication with respect to which legislation might apply to the new bridge.
Although the Bridges Act will not apply to this project, the public-private partnership agreement will contain very specific and stringent clauses and high performance standards with respect to the commissioning and inspection of the new bridge. With respect to the User Fees Act, given the unique feature of this project, it was determined that the fixing of tolls would be done through ministerial regulations.
That concludes my presentation, Mr. Chair. We would be more than happy to answer your questions.
Thank you.