Transport Committee on Feb. 28th, 2019

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Mr. Jeneroux has moved a motion asking committee members to—

[Matt Jeneroux]

Let's get a recorded vote on that, just for fun.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

—ask the officials to stay another hour.

(Motion negatived: nays 5; yeas 4)

There's—

[Matt Jeneroux]

Madam Chair, this again shows the shutting down of committees in a way not wanting to hear from witnesses. We have 15 witnesses here today, and we've only received seven minutes of questioning time for the supplementary estimates.

Extending it an hour is hardly outside any sort of reasonable request. This again implicates not only you but the entire committee in continuing to cover up in terms of our being able to ask questions of this government and what's fast becoming a very questionable administration from the top down.

You didn't even ask if the witnesses were willing to stay for that extra hour, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much, Mr. Jeneroux.

I will thank all of our witnesses for—

Mr. Iacono.

[Angelo Iacono, Liberal, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

I'd like to move a motion that we give them another half an hour, another round of questioning.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

I have to ask the witnesses if that works with schedules. It certainly doesn't work with—

[Angelo Iacono, Liberal, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

I think we should proceed with asking the witnesses first. If they're okay with it, then we can put it to a vote. I think that would be the logical way to do it, to not just impose it on them.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Well, I didn't suggest that we were going to do that.

Mr. Badawey.

[Vance Badawey, Liberal, Niagara Centre, ON]

Madam Chair, that would be fine. I respect the comments of Mr. Jeneroux and Mr. Iacono. The concern I have is that we have a lot of committee work to do in response to the committee work that we're embarking on, which, quite frankly, was recommended by both parties on the other side of the table. But half an hour...as long as you feel, Madam Chair, that we can get through that committee work that we have on our agenda.

I just want to remind committee members that we agreed upon this time frame.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Yes.

[Vance Badawey, Liberal, Niagara Centre, ON]

However, if you need more time, that's fine: another half an hour, as long as in the last half hour we can get through this agreed-upon agenda with respect to the committee work we had planned on doing.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

We'll try.

Mr. Liepert.

[Ron Liepert, Conservative, Calgary Signal Hill, AB]

Can we just get something clarified? If the member is referring to the study on airport noise, I think if he checked the record, he would find that it was the Liberals who brought forward that motion.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Mr. Keenan, Ms. Gillis and Mr. Phillips, are any of the three of you available to stay for an additional half an hour? At this point, it would be 26 minutes.

[Michael Keenan]

Madam Chair, I think we would adjust our schedule based on the will of the committee.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Okay.

Mr. Phillips?

All right. To our witnesses who can stay for an additional 26 minutes, thank you very much. We would appreciate that.

You had a minute left, then.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK]

Madam Chair, there's a motion.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

What was your motion? I'm sorry.

[Angelo Iacono, Liberal, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

It was that we extend this by half an hour.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Yes, and the witnesses agreed to it.

We'll vote on extending it for 26 minutes, which is what's remaining.

(Motion agreed to)

All right.

Mr. Jeneroux, you have 45 seconds left on your time.

[Matt Jeneroux]

Thank you.

The last time you were here you were unable to tell the committee about the status of late penalties on the Champlain Bridge. In fact, your explanation was different from the minister's, but neither one of you really answered. Hopefully today we can actually receive a proper update.

Will the federal government be collecting the agreed-upon late penalties of $100,000 per day for the first seven days and $400,000 for each day after that, with a maximum of $150 million, yes or no?

[Kelly Gillis]

We remain in commercial discussions with the Champlain Bridge on the penalties and the consequences for the contract for the delays. As soon as those discussions are complete, or the other proceedings, whether we go to court after, are known, we will continue to be transparent on that.

[Matt Jeneroux]

The minister says yes, though.

[Kelly Gillis]

The minister has said that there will be consequences—