Transport Committee on Feb. 24th, 2016

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

Fundamentally, this amount of money will be allocated to things that could literally pop up out of the ground as problems. That leads to the question of whether this is substantially a brownfield project. Are you building across previously used land?

[Helena Borges]

We are. In some cases, it's previously used land. In effect we had to take out a whole neighbourhood on the south shore. We had to buy all the homes there. They've been torn down, and now the site is being prepared to hand over to the concessionaire for them to construct on.

The bridge is built parallel to the existing structure, so it's not as if we could take out the existing bridge and build exactly where it is. It's next to it, so there were sites that were lived in, that had other contaminants, we'll call them, from various activities. We've had to deal with all that.

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

If things go well, which they don't always do, maybe we can expect some of that money to come back.

[Helena Borges]

Yes, in effect it's contingency money, so if we don't need it, we won't spend it. It will return to the fiscal framework.

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

Under item 3, transfers and the internal reallocation of capital resources to fund operating, what isn't being done on the capital side to make this transfer possible?

[Helena Borges]

Transport Canada has a capital budget. We own a lot of assets across the country. We own ports, airports, other facilities where we test vehicles, and things like that. Every year we go through a priority-setting process where we look at the needs of our facilities and make sure we are able to maintain those facilities in a safe, environmentally sound way.

Every year we end up not being able to use up the capital money we have. Some of that money is either re-profiled to the next year or if it's beyond the amount we're allowed to carry over to the next year, lapses into the fiscal framework.

This year we've had an unusual situation. In our operating funding, we have, over the past couple of years, made an intensive effort to bring on more inspectors for our safety and security activities—rail safety, marine safety, aviation, and dangerous goods. In the past we've had a difficult time recruiting people for these occupations. We took a different approach to recruitment in terms of being much more proactive, being out there, different ways of recruiting, including recruitment of some veterans.

We now have our inspectorate, a full complement of inspectors and oversight personnel, on board in those areas. What that does, though, is increase our operating expenses. When we bring those new people in, we have to pay their salaries. We also have to pay for their training. It will take us about two years to fully train an oversight inspector to perform their duties properly. As part of their training, they have to travel, because not all the training is where they are located. Most of our inspectors are based across Canada. There is, then, also the travel required for them to actually do their work, when they have to go and do inspections of the various entities.

With this big recruitment effort, and now that we're happy we have all these inspectors on board, we've had to spend a bit more money than anticipated, so we're moving some of that excess capital money one year to cover the operating.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much.

Moving on, Ms. Duncan, you have six minutes.

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I thank all of you for coming here. I'm sure we'll see lots of you over the coming years. We look forward to seeing the ministers as well.

My first question goes to Mr. Watt, but I'm not sure if the department would be involved in this as well.

The new funds for baggage screening, I understand you to say, are for hold baggage. Information has come to light through the French-language media that there was an incident at the Pearson airport as far back as 2011. It was the explosion of a lithium battery in luggage that was about to be boarded.

Questions are being raised because other countries, apparently, are taking measures to stop people from having active equipment with lithium batteries because of the risk. I'm wondering if this additional money for hold baggage also addresses that potential risk.

[Angus Watt]

I think I'll pass that to Helena.

We are a fully regulated entity, unlike in the U.S. The transportation security agency there actually regulates itself. Transport Canada determines what we screen for. It's up to Transport Canada to decide.

[Helena Borges]

With respect to lithium batteries, they can be included in things you carry in your checked baggage, or they could be articles that are put in the cargo hold of an aircraft. It could be both scenarios.

The lithium batteries are considered dangerous substances. We are a member of the International Civil Aviation Organization, which is the UN agency that is situated in Montreal. We work together with other countries to determine what can and should go on aircraft that doesn't pose a hazard to the aircraft, the occupants of the aircraft, and the other cargo on the aircraft.

There have been ongoing discussions about that. Actually, I believe it was last week that ICAO determined that they should not be allowed to go on aircraft. Our regulations will not allow that as well. We are in the process now of considering the ICAO decision, and we will comply with that requirement.

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Thanks. I look forward to following up on that.

My next question is to VIA Rail.

I want to thank you for your service. During the disaster of 9/11, I was stranded in Fredericton at a meeting. VIA Rail brought me safely home to Alberta—so thank you very much—along with many people from around the world. That was how they got back to the west coast.

A lot of my colleagues have been raising questions over a good number of years about cutbacks to the service of VIA Rail. I guess my obvious question to you is, are the monies that are being allotted to you sufficient to allow you to continue the service? Are they going to allow you to bring back some of the services that are being cut? Or do you anticipate further cuts to the services provided by passenger rail?

[Yves Desjardins-Siciliano]

Thank you very much for your question.

The funds allocated here are really meant to maintain services as they are today. Enhancements have been made over the last year and a half, which account for our increase in revenue and ridership. But they are marginal improvements at best because the fleet is getting older every day and there is congestion on the railways. Because we use shared railways that are mainly used, owned, and operated by freight companies, time to destination and on-time performance is deteriorating every day as well. Therefore, the usefulness and relevancy of the service is decreasing. That is why, more and more, it is a challenge to get more people to leave their cars behind and get on the train.

To go back to these funds, half of these funds are a re-profiling of an amount already approved. The other half is part of the infrastructure program improvements for the Montreal-Ottawa corridor. To answer your question, these funds maintain the service as is. We do not have any plans to reduce service.

We would like to improve service as we improve our financial picture by self-generating funds. We'd like to reinvest these funds in better service, in service enhancements, which might mean more stops or new frequencies. If the freight lines give us access to their infrastructure, we'd like to introduce new frequencies.

These funds keep us going as we are, and there are no current plans to reduce service.

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Desjardins-Siciliano.

You raised the issue of climate change. It's been revealed to all of us that transport is one of the significant sources of greenhouse gases in Canada, an aspect as yet really unaddressed. Have you been brought to the table to discuss this?

[Yves Desjardins-Siciliano]

The transport portfolio is one that is a major contributor to greenhouse gases. Sixty per cent of those greenhouse gases are produced by cars, and that is why our project of having a dedicated line that would remove 5.5 million car trips per year off the corridor would significantly reduce the carbon footprint of drivers in Canada.

We are part of that conversation, inasmuch as we are promoting greater use of the service. To do so, we are proposing to build a dedicated railway that will make trip times shorter, allow more trains to be available for the convenience of passengers, and ultimately, also make the service more reliable, because you won't get stuck behind freight trains. If we do that, more people will get on the train and the carbon footprint of car drivers will reduce considerably.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Mr. Sikand, you have six minutes, please.

[Gagan Sikand, Liberal, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

My question is also in regard to CATSA. It was mentioned that upgrading the screening systems would be in keeping with the beyond the border initiative. Could you please expand on what that is?

[Angus Watt]

Do you want to take that, Helena?

[Helena Borges]

Go ahead. Then I can supplement.

[Angus Watt]

Beyond the border was an agreement concluded by Prime Minister Harper and President Obama several years ago. Essentially, it was done to remove barriers to the free flow of goods and trade and people across the border.

One of the key elements with respect to airports was the free flow of passengers. Because we had a differing technical installation in Canada, the hold baggage—in other words, the checked bags of our passengers—even though it was pre-cleared for U.S. customs, had to be rescreened in the U.S. using their X-ray system.

What we determined was that if we were to replace that system with the U.S.-certified latest technology, you could remove that requirement so that our bags wouldn't have to be rescreened. You might ask what difference that makes. What it means is less cost for the airlines and a better scheduling flexibility. It's largely invisible to passengers, but you would see it in the cost of a ticket and in the ability to schedule those airlines.

It had a deadline, and that deadline was to complete the installation of those systems by December 2015. With one small exception in Calgary for a couple of months, we met that deadline all across the country.

[Gagan Sikand, Liberal, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

I have a follow-up to that. Is that for the 32 airports?

[Angus Watt]

No, this is only for airports with U.S. pre-clearance. In other words, those are the big class 1 airports. The 32 airports encompass a wide variety of airports.

We're replacing the X-ray machines in the hold baggage rooms of airports all across the country, not just in the big airports with U.S. pre-clearance. Beyond the border was a subset of that program. What it did was accelerate that program for a certain specific number of airports, and we met that acceleration time.

[Gagan Sikand, Liberal, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Do you have any further questions, Mr. Sikand? You still have three and a half minutes.

[Gagan Sikand, Liberal, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

Yes, I have a question with regard to VIA Rail.

You mentioned three things, the first being information technology.

Could you elaborate a little on a framework, or what you would need the supplementary estimates for with regard to information technology?

[Yves Desjardins-Siciliano]

This is the updating of the VIA Rail reservation system. VIA uses a reservation system that goes back to the 1980s, which was at the time shared with Air Canada. We are trying to move off of this mainframe platform to a distributed platform that provides reservation services on mobile devices.

As you know, today most people.... First of all, travel requests are first and foremost made online, and bookings are made online. Now the online tool has moved from the desktop to the mobile pocket device. Therefore, we are updating our systems to reflect that reality. A lot of work has to be done and, as you would expect in IT system development, there are always unexpected roadblocks. That's why these funds are required.