Evidence of meeting #57 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 project.

A video is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Stephen Farnworth  Vice-President, Aircraft Maintenance Engineers Association of Ontario, Canadian Federation of Aircraft Maintenance Engineers Associations
David Clark  Regional Vice-President, Pacific, Union of Canadian Transportation Employees
Michael Keenan  Deputy Minister, Department of Transport

12:40 p.m.

Liberal

Marc Garneau Liberal Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount, QC

Thank you very much.

The minister and I talk to each other continuously.

The classic example is something like a grade crossing where, unfortunately, because of long trains going by, there are several important consequences for local traffic and what have you. In some cases, the solution is to provide vertical separation. That has happened in the Vancouver area in particularly sensitive parts of the corridor.

When we are going to be focused on trying to make the corridors more fluid, we obviously don't want to make life worse for the local municipalities. It's very much part of our considerations that we're not working in silos in that respect, because the solutions we want to bring from my point of view in terms of making those corridors more efficient are not meant to make life more difficult for local municipalities. We are certainly talking not only with each other, but also with the municipalities and all of the players involved wherever there's a bottleneck.

12:40 p.m.

Liberal

Amarjeet Sohi Liberal Edmonton Mill Woods, AB

To further supplement that, through you, Madam Chair, we are providing some support to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities to encourage and support the municipalities to do more long-term asset management planning and coordination of their plans. That coordination happens at a local level, and then we work with them. Mr. Garneau and I, and other ministers who are linked to infrastructure investments, work very closely with each other on the reporting and on delivering the results for Canadians.

12:45 p.m.

Liberal

Ken Hardie Liberal Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC

Particularly in metro areas where there's a lot of movement to and from a seaport, say, with a lot of container traffic going to warehouses, etc., one can see that it isn't necessarily even the corridor itself but the whole road system, sometimes complemented by a good public transit system, that alleviates enough pressure so that you can get those goods moving properly in a metro area.

12:45 p.m.

Liberal

Amarjeet Sohi Liberal Edmonton Mill Woods, AB

Just quickly, one practice that we're encouraging municipalities to undertake is to look at mobility as a whole, not just as transit segregated from rural infrastructure and trade and transportation infrastructure. How do goods and services move in our urban centres or in other areas? We want to encourage that kind of holistic approach to transportation planning.

12:45 p.m.

Liberal

Ken Hardie Liberal Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC

This is where, you know, in smart cities—

12:45 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro

I'm sorry, Mr. Hardie, this is a four-minute round here. I'm trying to make sure that Mr. Berthold gets an opportunity as well.

Four minutes, Mr. Berthold.

12:45 p.m.

Conservative

Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC

No, it's Ms. Block.

12:45 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro

Oh, Ms. Block, I'm sorry. I had the wrong name down here.

Go ahead, Ms. Block.

12:45 p.m.

Conservative

Kelly Block Conservative Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

I want to thank you for being at our meeting here today.

There's a saying, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” I'm not sure if you're familiar with it. This seems to be especially true, given the current government's commitments and its ability to execute them; I guess there is still a lot to learn about deliverology. I'm imagining that our many cabinet ministers are thinking it's a good thing there is a two-year contract in place, with the ability to extend it for another year, with the deliverology guru you have lined up to help you.

I want to refer to the plan that's in front of me. I think it's a very ambitious plan. I see that it's going out to 2030. You know, all things being equal, I think that sometimes rank, order, and priorities provide a bit more clarity.

This committee has undertaken a number of studies when it comes to rail safety, the Navigation Protection Act. We're currently undertaking a study on aviation safety. I'm thinking that a safe and reliable transportation system is probably something that would be one of the top priorities of Transport Canada.

After making those observations, I would like to hear from you, Minister Garneau.

Do you believe that the significantly lower budget you have today compared to 2015-16 gives you the resources you need to not only fulfill the obligations that you have, but also this vision that you have introduced?

12:45 p.m.

Liberal

Marc Garneau Liberal Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount, QC

Thank you very much.

I agree with you that rail safety is extremely important. In fact, I'm on record as saying it's my number one priority.

In 2016, as you recall, more funding was identified for rail safety, because we still had work to do. It was $143 million in fact, and $55 million of that I announced last November with respect to the issue of addressing safety issues at grade crossings.

I announced $20 million just a little while ago, of that $55 million, for about 130 projects which are aimed at improving rail safety at grade crossings. Last year, there were some 65 deaths at grade crossings, or people trespassing on railways.

12:45 p.m.

Conservative

Kelly Block Conservative Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK

If I may interrupt for a moment, rail safety is absolutely important. My observation was on a safe and reliable transportation system on the whole—

12:50 p.m.

Liberal

Marc Garneau Liberal Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount, QC

Sure.

12:50 p.m.

Conservative

Kelly Block Conservative Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK

—including aviation safety, marine safety.

I'm really wanting to know if you believe that the budget you have today, which is significantly lower than in the previous years, is enough to fulfill the obligations that you have across all modes of transportation.

12:50 p.m.

Liberal

Marc Garneau Liberal Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount, QC

Yes, I believe it is.

12:50 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro

Thank you, all.

Thank you to the Ministers and your staff for appearing before us today.

12:50 p.m.

Conservative

Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC

On a point of order, Madam Chair, I don't know why you are stopping the meeting right now. We have 10 minutes left. I know we have to vote on the main estimates, but usually it takes just five minutes to do that.

12:50 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro

You never know if there are going to be any concerns raised, and it's important for us to try to pass these main estimates today. I did not want to leave it to the very last minute, and there were only 35 seconds left of the four-minute rounds that we shifted down to.

12:50 p.m.

Conservative

Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC

On the same point of order, Madam Chair, I want to know why you decided to change the time allowed for each person to speak.

We have a motion on the table prescribing each round that we have. If we did it as we were supposed to, they had six minutes, we had six minutes, and we had time to ask all of our questions. Now we don't have time because we didn't plan it.

You didn't say to us—

12:50 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro

No, let me put it straight. Everybody had six minutes exactly in the first round—the four turns being exactly 6:16, 6:20, 6:20, 6:17 minutes long.

The next round was started with Mr. Hardie. I shifted from six minutes to five minutes, and then looking at the clock, I moved it to four minutes. And it was the same for Ms. Block, at four minutes.

We're talking about two minutes here, and we still have work to do.

12:50 p.m.

Conservative

Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC

Yes, but it's important when we have only 10 minutes to ask questions of two ministers in the same meeting. It's really important. Those two minutes could have made a difference. I could have had a chance to ask the minister and to thank him for his support for Lac-Mégantic.

12:50 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro

Well, you can use that. Now you've done that, and I appreciate your comments. We will move forward.

Thank you all again. I appreciate your being here.

Pursuant to Standing Order 81(4), the committee will now dispose of the main estimates for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2018, minus the interim supply the House agreed to on March 21, 2017.

For the Ministry of Transport, it is vote 1 under Canadian Air Transport Security Authority; vote 1 under Canadian Transportation Agency; votes 1, 5, 10, 15, and 20 under Department of Transport; vote 1 under Marine Atlantic Inc.; vote 1 under the Federal Bridge Corporation Limited; and vote 1 under VIA Rail Canada Inc.

For the Ministry of Infrastructure, it is votes 1, 5, and 10 under Office of Infrastructure of Canada; votes 1 and 5 under PPP Canada Inc.; vote 1 under the Jacques-Cartier and Champlain Bridges Inc.; and vote 1 under the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority.

Do I have unanimous consent to deal with all the votes in one motion?

12:50 p.m.

Some hon. members

Agreed.

12:50 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro

I will deal with all votes in one motion.

CANADIAN AIR TRANSPORT SECURITY AUTHORITY

Vote 1—Payments to the Authority for operating and capital expenditures..........$584,584,214

(Vote 1 agreed to on division)

CANADIAN TRANSPORTATION AGENCY

Vote 1—Program expenditures..........$27,714,765

(Vote 1 agreed to on division)

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORT

Vote 1—Operating expenditures..........$596,606,256

Vote 5—Capital expenditures..........$138,591,900

Vote 10—Grants and contributions—Gateways and corridors..........$113,975,543

Vote 15—Grants and contributions—Transportation infrastructure..........$185,061,604

Vote 20—Grants and contributions—Other..........$37,739,369

(Votes 1, 5, 10, 15, and 20 agreed to on division)

MARINE ATLANTIC INC.

Vote 1—Payments to the corporation..........$76,545,000

(Vote 1 agreed to on division)

OFFICE OF INFRASTRUCTURE OF CANADA

Vote 1—Operating expenditures..........$126,917,348

Vote 5—Capital expenditures..........$523,659,656

Vote 10—Contributions..........$4,282,963,173

(Votes 1, 5, and 10 agreed to on division)

PPP CANADA INC.

Vote 1—Payments to the corporation for operating expenditures..........$11,800,000

Vote 5—Payments to the corporation for P3 Canada Fund..........$267,700,000

(Votes 1 and 5 agreed to on division)

THE FEDERAL BRIDGE CORPORATION LIMITED

Vote 1—Payments to the corporation..........$22,885,386

(Vote 1 agreed to on division)

THE JACQUES-CARTIER AND CHAMPLAIN BRIDGES INC.

Vote 1—Payments to the corporation..........$331,777,000

(Vote 1 agreed to on division)

VIA RAIL CANADA INC.

Vote 1—Payments to the corporation..........$221,004,897

(Vote 1 agreed to on division)

WINDSOR-DETROIT BRIDGE AUTHORITY

Vote 1—Payments to the Authority..........$258,916,050

(Vote 1 agreed to on division)

Shall I report these votes to the House?

12:50 p.m.

Some hon. members

Agreed.

12:50 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro

We're done, and no one has objected and we've managed to get through it.

Sir, I had to allow sufficient time in case you were going to object and we had to go through all the votes individually.

Thank you all very much. The next meeting is on Thursday.