Evidence of meeting #48 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 study.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
Yes, we could do a summary and report it to the House, and later on, do a follow-up.
Liberal
Sean Fraser Liberal Central Nova, NS
That would be my preference. I would just hate to see the testimony get lost and the only people to benefit be the ones who tuned into ParlVu's audio recordings of our meetings, which I'd suggest is not that many people. I would recommend that we do a summary report to table in the House, present that to the minister, not necessarily with recommendations but listing the interesting things we learned.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
However, that is not to preclude us at a future time from going back to doing more work on the infrastructure of smart communities.
Liberal
Ken Hardie Liberal Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC
I agree with Sean's take on this. In that regard, though, I would like the analyst in preparing the summary to make sure that we capture the questions and answers around how best to manage infrastructure rollout, because I can see some utility in what we heard as we take on a broader study of transportation and the transportation network in Canada. My concerns throughout what we heard there are there's a lot of gee-whiz stuff out there that you can blow a lot of money on for very little return.
I would really like to be able to extract from what we heard some further questions that we can then integrate into that broader study, because at the end of the day, we want things that work and things that give us good bang for our infrastructure dollars.
Alexandre Lavoie Committee Researcher
We could come up with a short list of unanswered issues that may be looked at in future by the minister, by the committee. Is that what you'd like?
Liberal
Ken Hardie Liberal Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC
There are unanswered issues, but there are also the statements that were made in response to questions about how best we go forward. We want to capture that advice so we can test that advice with other people in the future study.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
Do you need anything else before you would be able to write up the summary?
Committee Researcher
No, the summary will make sure that we cover all issues. We don't need to know where the committee wants to go at that point.
Liberal
NDP
Robert Aubin NDP Trois-Rivières, QC
I don't want to add new elements, but we were discussing the estimates earlier. In the budget, the government may announce or formally establish an infrastructure bank. I know a motion was put forward, but we may have to do some jostling if the infrastructure bank comes to fruition.
Conservative
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
I agree with Mr. Aubin. In fact, that's why I didn't make a suggestion earlier when we were discussing the aviation safety study. The infrastructure bank was one of my priorities, but given the upcoming budget and potential announcements around that, I think it would have been premature. It is often said that we act too early when it comes to legislation. I think we are prepared, then, to wait for an announcement on the infrastructure bank, but as soon as we have enough information, it's imperative that we add the study to the committee's priorities and fit it into the schedule.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
It's our understanding that budget day is going to be March 21, so we'll see what we learn and we'll see where we go from there, but the infrastructure bank was on our list as well as our logistics—
Conservative
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
Oh, my gosh, I'm sure I was wrong. Go and tell all your folks it was the wrong date.
All right, not seeing any other hands up—
Mr. Berthold.
Conservative
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
Were you going to adjourn the meeting? Madam Chair, I'm afraid you've misjudged me.
Conservative
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
Next week, we are going to consider the report on the Navigation Protection Act. A number of motions were put forward on the subject. I, for one, have made numerous requests for documents that I would've liked the department to provide us with. Could we discuss them, so as to either remove them from the list of motions or adopt them? I think they could prove quite helpful as we consider the report.
I don't know whether you'll have time to dig out the lists, but I made multiple requests for all kinds of information and documents I thought would be very relevant. I think we should deal with them, as they will no longer be pertinent after the committee has finished considering the report on the Navigation Protection Act.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
This is in relation to the NPA. Our analysts were ready to go forward with that on March 7 and March 9 when we come back to deal with the recommendations and the balance of that study.
Conservative
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
As I said, my colleagues and I put forward a number of motions pertaining to requests for information. If we wait to deal with them, it could drag out the study, and I'm fairly certain that isn't what the committee members want.
