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.
Associate Deputy Minister, Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, Department of Transport
No. It's within the whole period, the 34-year period.
Conservative
Dianne Lynn Watts Conservative South Surrey—White Rock, BC
Okay, so the operation of the $754 million would be amortized over 30 years, and then the other one with four years.
Associate Deputy Minister, Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, Department of Transport
Yes.
Liberal
Sean Fraser Liberal Central Nova, NS
I'd like to quickly return to the Confederation Bridge, building on Ms. Block's questioning. I have some interest in the bridge. If you leave P.E.I. and you go to the Halifax airport or over the ferry, you do end up in my home riding. It's about the only way you can escape the island without coming through my backyard. I'm a little confused as to why it's coming up in the supplementary estimates process. If it's the complete cost of policing the entire bridge, why wouldn't it be built into a main estimate, as opposed to the supplementary estimates?
Associate Deputy Minister, Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, Department of Transport
That's a good question.
Do you know the answer to that, André?
Normally what we do for payments between departments is that we do them at the end of the fiscal year, so they would be coming up at the end. It's just like the Shared Services Canada one. You'll see that in there for services rendered throughout the year, but we settle the accounts normally at the end of the year.
André Lapointe Assistant Deputy Minister and Chief Financial Officer, Corporate Services, Transport Canada, Department of Transport
The agreement was signed in the summer of 2015, so by the time we catch up to the estimates process we land in estimates (C).
Liberal
Sean Fraser Liberal Central Nova, NS
Just out of curiosity, so that I understand the framework going forward, for the next fiscal year would we be building this into the main estimates, or is this going to happen at the same time each year?
Assistant Deputy Minister and Chief Financial Officer, Corporate Services, Transport Canada, Department of Transport
This would probably happen at the same time.
Liberal
Angelo Iacono Liberal Alfred-Pellan, QC
Mr. Desjardins-Siciliano, pleased to meet you, and thank you all for being here.
You mentioned earlier something with respect to a capital investment of $20.2 million, and you also mentioned about refurbishing some of your trains. Which fleet of trains would you be refurbishing?
President and Chief Executive Officer, VIA Rail Canada Inc.
Thank you for the question.
The fleet being refurbished is the LRC fleet, which was built in the 1970s by Bombardier.
Liberal
Angelo Iacono Liberal Alfred-Pellan, QC
When you mean refurbishing, what exactly needs to be refurbished. What exactly is no longer up to date? Could you be more specific?
President and Chief Executive Officer, VIA Rail Canada Inc.
The normal time frame for a fleet is about 30 years. Every 15 years or so mechanical components, and over time beyond that 15-year mark structural components, need to be replaced. This is the third refurbishment of that fleet. That's why it will be the last refurbishment. A refurbishment was undertaken in the late 1990s and early 2000s, again in the 2007 time frame, and now this refurbishment.
President and Chief Executive Officer, VIA Rail Canada Inc.
The work was originally started in New Brunswick, but the firm there was taken into bankruptcy by the Province of New Brunswick. The work was then moved to Montreal. It was done partly at the VIA Rail maintenance facility, the Montreal maintenance centre in Pointe-Saint-Charles, and part of it was contracted out to a Montreal-based company called Cad Railways.
Liberal
February 24th, 2016 / 4:40 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, VIA Rail Canada Inc.
We put a request into our shareholders to replace this fleet. As I said in my introduction, this fleet is coming to its end of life after this refurbishment. This will only give it a 7- to 10-year life expectancy. The first cars were completed in this refurbishment back in 2012, and that means that by 2018 or 2019 some of those cars, if not replaced by a new fleet, will have to be taken out of service.
Liberal
Angelo Iacono Liberal Alfred-Pellan, QC
You said that you've already undertaken studies on where you would be buying them from. Do you have any idea?
President and Chief Executive Officer, VIA Rail Canada Inc.
No, not at this time. Through Canada's free trade commitments this is a procurement that would be open to international markets and players. There are some players in Canada that we all know, but there are also international players out of Europe and the United States who could decide to bid for this opportunity.
