Evidence of meeting #3 for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was million.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:45 p.m.
Conservative
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I would like you to tell me whether there are other bridges where Transport Canada must also pay for the police services that provide surveillance.
4:45 p.m.
Associate Deputy Minister, Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, Department of Transport
That is not Transport Canada. In Montreal, it is the Jacques-Cartier and Champlain Inc. company that manages the Champlain Bridge and pays the Sûreté du Québec for police operations on the bridge when that is necessary. They have an annual contract to cover those activities.
4:45 p.m.
Conservative
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
They have to pay for the police services provided on those two bridges.
4:45 p.m.
Associate Deputy Minister, Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, Department of Transport
There are other crown corporations, for instance the Federal Bridge Corporation Limited. That corporation owns the bridges over the St. Lawrence, in Cornwall, the Thousand Islands, and Sarnia. The police services on these bridges are paid for by that corporation. Those services may be provided by the municipal police or by a provincial organization. It varies. Since there is no federal police force for this sort of thing, those are the services that are used.
4:45 p.m.
Conservative
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
I would like a clarification on something.
Earlier, you gave a breakdown of the costs for the Champlain Bridge and you referred to a figure of $954 million in financial costs. Did that sum have to be added because of the decision to not impose tolls? Is it the amount the business would have made from the tolls?
4:45 p.m.
Associate Deputy Minister, Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, Department of Transport
The amount I mentioned was for the total cost of the project. The federal government has to pay the consortium, whether there are tolls or not. Since there will not be any tolls, the government will have to offset that. Be that as it may, that amount was the total cost for the project.
4:45 p.m.
Conservative
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
When you gave the cost breakdown, you mentioned construction costs, operation costs, and you added financial costs.
4:45 p.m.
Associate Deputy Minister, Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, Department of Transport
I was talking about financial expenses.
4:45 p.m.
Conservative
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
Yes, there were financial expenses. Were those costs added? Normally, they would be paid by the users of the network.
4:45 p.m.
Associate Deputy Minister, Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, Department of Transport
No, those are financial expenses. The private partner contributes to the cost of the project and advances the funds for the construction. Over the years to come, we will have to pay the amount the partner will have spent on the construction.
February 24th, 2016 / 4:45 p.m.
Liberal
Vance Badawey Liberal Niagara Centre, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I guess this question can go to all the folks in the room here this afternoon, but specifically to Mr. Desjardins-Siciliano to start off with.
You mentioned the fact that your stock and your assets are coming to the end of their life cycle. With that said, I'm sure that over time you've had a certain amount of dollars within your operating budget to finance the repair and maintenance of your assets.
Is there now, either within these supplementary estimates or placed in reserves over time, the amount of dollars that will in fact replace the assets that need to be replaced?
4:45 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, VIA Rail Canada Inc.
There are no amounts set aside or under reserve to replace the assets. Every year, through the annual appropriation for which we are before you today, VIA Rail secures either the operating funding or the capital funding required to maintain the fleet in a state of good repair.
From time to time, every seven years or so, as I indicated earlier in answer to Mr. Iacono's question, a significant refurbishment has to be undertaken. That is done through an appropriation decision by the Government of Canada. There are no funds in reserve for a renewal of this fleet and that's why this will be a separate government decision.
4:45 p.m.
Liberal
Vance Badawey Liberal Niagara Centre, ON
Just to be clear, when you do need to replace do you come that fiscal year to ask for the funds to replace your stock?
4:50 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, VIA Rail Canada Inc.
That's correct. We make the request to our shareholders through the good offices of Ms. Borges and officials at Transport Canada, and then the minister and his colleagues, the cabinet, the Minister of Finance, decide in their budget to allocate the funds for the renewal of a fleet. We're talking here of something north of $1 billion, so it is a significant undertaking.
4:50 p.m.
Liberal
Vance Badawey Liberal Niagara Centre, ON
Thank you.
It's the same question to Transport Canada, specific to your assets, and the question ultimately relates to an asset management plan. What I'm looking at, in all fairness to the folks, is life cycle and of course, financing that life cycle throughout time, to repair and maintain, yes, but also through replacement when its life cycle is exhausted.
4:50 p.m.
Associate Deputy Minister, Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, Department of Transport
Yes, we do. We have an annual capital budget. You'll see in the supplementary estimates (C) that there's an operating vote, a capital vote, and a G and C vote. We have a capital vote every year, so with that money, as I mentioned before, we have 18 airports that we still own and operate. We have 50 ports that we still own and operate, plus other facilities that we own. We have a five-year investment plan, and we make sure that our assets are being maintained and kept in a safe operating condition.
Periodically, like Mr. Desjardins mentioned, there may be a need for a bigger investment, so if necessary, we will go to cabinet and get approval for that, and that will be provided one time, specifically for that. But we do have an annual capital vote that we can tap to maintain our assets because we have quite a few.
4:50 p.m.
Liberal
Vance Badawey Liberal Niagara Centre, ON
Thank you. A last question, Madam Chair, if I may.
When that does happen, when you need that unexpected amount of dollars to come in to fund a capital project, are you financing a debt or are you paying outright cash?
4:50 p.m.
Associate Deputy Minister, Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, Department of Transport
It's paid out by cash. It would be included in a budget, for example, and then that money is made available to us for the period that we estimate the project will take.
4:50 p.m.
Liberal
4:50 p.m.
Liberal
Ken Hardie Liberal Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC
I have a quick question to all of the agencies. If you look back at the 2014-15 fiscal year, was there lapsed funding? Did you turn money back over to the treasury, and if so, how much?
4:50 p.m.
Assistant Deputy Minister and Chief Financial Officer, Corporate Services, Transport Canada, Department of Transport
For 2014-15 for Transport, our carry-forward.... It's essentially not money returned to the treasury. It's money that we get to use in the following year. We have a limit. It's about 5% of our budget year over year. In 2014-15, that limit was about $30 million, and we actually carried forward $15 million to $16 million.
