Transport Committee on March 7th, 2016

[Dianne Lynn Watts, Conservative, South Surrey—White Rock, BC]

In our area, and Ken will attest to this as well, the Massey bridge is a number one priority for the provincial government. For every mayor in the region it's not. They want public transit. They want a transit system that will be robust. You're at an absolute impasse right there. These are not little projects. They cost billions and billions of dollars.

I come back to how you're going to look at squaring that. That's why when we did the gas fund it went directly to municipalities so they could get going on their priorities. Typically the other dollars have gone via the province, so that's the mechanism that has to change. I don't know how you're going to do that, so I'll throw that back at you.

[Amarjeet Sohi, Liberal, Edmonton Mill Woods, AB]

You have identified a challenge that we would have to overcome. How do all these three orders of government and their priorities align with each other?

[Jean-François Tremblay]

Constructive tension.

[Amarjeet Sohi, Liberal, Edmonton Mill Woods, AB]

Constructive tension, my DM says.

One of the things I have been able to convey to all of my partners and stakeholders is that we want to have very open lines of communication. Let's sit down at the same table, talk to each other, see how we can work these things out. Some we'll be able to solve and some we won't be able to solve. It's going to be that ongoing collaboration and spirit of working together. In some cases we will be able to achieve results. We'll see how we proceed on this.

This is a tension that we have identified, and we are aware of it. You know that, right, Ms. Watts? You lived through that—

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you, Minister. We have time for one more three-minute round.

Mr. Badawey.

[Vance Badawey, Liberal, Niagara Centre, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Once again, thank you, Mr. Minister.

Dianne, I have to say a lot of your questions are bang on in terms of some of those challenges that we're going to have.

With that, I just want to drill a bit deeper on a question that I asked earlier, on my first question with respect to developing a comprehensive, long-term, 20-year to 30-year transportation infrastructure plan that's been identified within the Emerson report, the Canada Transportation Act review. What I mean by drilling a bit deeper is that it does recommend a 20-year to 30-year transportation infrastructure plan. Mr. Minister, in your opinion, does that give consideration to the establishment of a national transportation strategy? There's a short answer by the way, and there's a long answer.

[Amarjeet Sohi, Liberal, Edmonton Mill Woods, AB]

I can't give you the answer because this is Minister Garneau's area of responsibility. Minister Garneau is engaging with all of the relevant stakeholders and partners in order to prepare recommendations out of the review. Out of respect for his area of responsibility, I can't give you a precise answer.

In my conversations with business leaders—I met with the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade; I had a meeting in Toronto, as well as a meeting with the board of trade in Surrey—transportation infrastructure is identified as a need, and we need to have a long-term plan.

I will work with Minister Garneau's area to assist him in the design of the long-term plan. What that is going to look like and how long it's going to be will be determined by his area in consultation with stakeholders. Hopefully, we'll be able to assist him through some alignment of our infrastructure dollars.

[Vance Badawey, Liberal, Niagara Centre, ON]

Thank you, Minister. I think it goes to Ms. Watts' question with respect to being credible and accountable moving forward with different strategies and having, in this case, transportation strategies, and also establishing them as being economic enablers.

The Emerson report was very clear in its prefaced comments by stating that both the economy and investments that come through transportation do add to the overall economic situation and, of course, add as an enabler to the country's moving forward with economic development. We also need to take into consideration a lot of those investments.

Although I didn't get an answer, I hope that, as we see with all G7 countries, all of which, by the way, have a transportation strategy in place, except for us....

I expect that we will fulfill that mandate and add an economic enabler to the overall ability for different regions, especially those strategic areas that have the ability to take advantage of the strategy, and therefore ultimately, investments that come out of your ministry.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much, Mr. Badawey.

Minister, it is rare that we get a minster that provides us with two hours of his or her time. We very much appreciate that.

[Amarjeet Sohi, Liberal, Edmonton Mill Woods, AB]

I'm happy to do so.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

I would like to suggest that you learned a lot from the committee. They're very engaged members. The municipal background is going to assist all of us as committee members. If you'd like to come back and ask the committee for some more information, guidance, and suggestions.... I think that today was a two-way street.

I thank you and your staff for supplying us with so much information. You're welcome to come any time to our committee.

We will vote when we complete the study on the mains on Wednesday. We won't be voting on the infrastructure portion today. We'll wait until we've finished the study on Wednesday.

The meeting is adjourned.