Transport Committee on Feb. 24th, 2016

[André Lapointe]

No. There wasn't, but let me just put some detail around that. If you look at public accounts, you will see that there's a large amount of lapsed funding but in that are carry-forward amounts, for instance, for G and Cs from one year to the next. Even though that money will be used in the following year, it shows up there as a lapse, but it is actually used in the following year or following years.

[Ken Hardie, Liberal, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

Got it...and for CATSA?

[Angus Watt]

For CATSA, for 2014-15, just to give some perspective, our overall budget that year was $620 million, and we lapsed $3.263 million.

[Ken Hardie, Liberal, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

And for VIA?

[Yves Desjardins-Siciliano]

Last year we would have returned about $7 million out of an operating budget of about $600 million. This year we're forecasting around $6 million, so about 1%.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Are there any further questions of the witnesses by the members? Have you exhausted all of the questions? Good.

We'll go into the—

[Vance Badawey, Liberal, Niagara Centre, ON]

I have a question.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

I always said I would try to be flexible with everyone.

[Vance Badawey, Liberal, Niagara Centre, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just have a loose end.

Mr. Siciliano just mentioned that he gives back, out of the operating budget, about $7 million. Why wouldn't you look at actually establishing a reserve to look at replacing those assets, to actually put that into an account?

[Yves Desjardins-Siciliano]

The $7 million was from the amounts earmarked for capitalizing our pension plan. Therefore, those amounts cannot be re-profiled or moved across the line.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

I am now going to call the vote on the various motions in front of me.

CANADIAN AIR TRANSPORT SECURITY AUTHORITY Vote 1c—Payments to the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority for operating and capital expenditures..........$6,513,787

(Vote 1c agreed to on division)

OFFICE OF INFRASTRUCTURE OF CANADA Vote 1c—Operating expenditures..........$49,310,925 Vote 5c—Capital expenditures..........$12,537,085

(Votes 1c and 5c agreed to on division)

TRANSPORT Vote 1c—Operating expenditures..........$5,312,160 Vote 10c—Grants and contributions..........$21,844,683

(Votes 1c and 10c agreed to on division)

VIA RAIL CANADA INC. Vote 1c—Payments to VIA Rail Canada Inc...........$38,790,134

(Vote 1c agreed to on division)

Shall the chair report vote 1c under Canadian Air Transport Security Authority; votes 1c and 5c under Office of Infrastructure of Canada; votes 1c and 10c under Transport; and vote 1c under VIA Rail Canada Inc. to the House?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much. We have completed this part.

I'd like to specifically thank the witnesses for coming on very short notice. I believe it was 30 hours' notice for VIA Rail and 46 hours' notice for the departments. Thank you so much for being available and sharing so much information with us today. We no doubt will see lots of each other as the time progresses.

I'm going to suspend the meeting for two minutes in order to give the witnesses a chance to exit before we continue.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

I'm going to call the meeting back to order.

There are a couple of things I want to discuss, one being that the ministers are coming on March 7 and March 9. To be efficient with our time, I wonder if the committee would like to deal with the main estimates at the same time as we have the ministers here on March 7 and March 9.

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Central Nova, NS]

Does this require a motion? I'm happy to make one.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

It would need unanimous consent if we are going to deal with this idea today.

Ms. Duncan.

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Yes, it was, of course, me who wanted to raise the question of when we were going to review the main estimates. I would only agree to this on the condition that we will have additional opportunities to review the main estimates because that's a whole discussion unto itself. That's a big document. We have a lot of things to talk to the ministers about, and I'm not convinced that we'll be able to go through all of the aspects of the main estimates in the meetings with the ministers.

I have some reservations about that. I think we should agree that we can raise questions with the minister, which would be normal because they've tabled them and the ministers are coming in, but I would hope that we will have another opportunity, if we all agree, to bring in the officials to go through the main estimates in greater detail.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

It certainly sounds sensible to me. There is a fair amount that certainly the members are going to want to discuss with the ministers in the committee, but we could at least get the process started. We have until May to finalize that.

Do we have unanimous consent to deal with the main estimates at the same time, on March 7 and March 9, knowing full well that we will probably want them to come back at another date? Do I have that correct?

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

I think that's contradictory.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Well, be specific. I understood that you would be....

Ms. Block.

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

I'm wondering if Mr. Fraser would include that second piece in his motion, that it be subject to the opportunity to call back the officials for further discussion on the mains if deemed necessary.

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Central Nova, NS]

I'm fine with that. I'll move that during the meetings on March 7 and 9 the committee also consider the main estimates as they relate to the Transport and Infrastructure portfolios, subject to the committee's wishes to conduct further considerations of the main estimates with officials from the departments, if the committee deems it appropriate at a later date.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Terrific. What a great group of people. We have unanimous consent.

Ms. Duncan had asked about having the minister's meeting televised. I will ask the clerk: have you requested it, or will you request it?

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Andrew Bartholomew Chaplin]

I already have and it's already arranged.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

That's great.