Transport Committee on June 16th, 2020

[Todd Doherty, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

Minister, when was the last time you spoke with the Canadian Airports Council, or anyone from the airport industry?

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

I have spoken recently to some officials in our airports, for example, Ms. Flint who is responsible for the GTAA. Yesterday my chief of staff was in touch with Monsieur Rainville, who is the president of the Trudeau airport.

We keep in contact with the airports, the airlines, and with NavCan as well, all of them hit by this pandemic.

[Todd Doherty, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

Your testimony is suspect, Minister. We're in constant contact with our aviation industry writ large. Repeatedly, entities within the industry, both airlines and airports, have written you, tried to contact your office and you. They all are coming back and saying they've had no discussions with you, limited discussions with you, and no discussions and no response during the COVID crisis.

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

Mr. Doherty, I take exception to what you just said. I, and my department and my officials, are very much in touch with the airlines, the airports and the organizations on how much they have been profoundly affected by this crisis.

[Todd Doherty, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

Minister, could you then table with—

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

I resent the insinuation that I am not paying attention to them because I am paying attention to them on a daily basis—

[Todd Doherty, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

Minister, could you then table with this committee, at your earliest convenience, any discussions that you've had with WestJet, Air Canada, any of our small tier-3 carriers— Air North, Central Mountain Air, Pacific Coastal Airlines, to name a few—ATAC and the Canadian Airports Council?

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

We have a lot of information, a lot of letters back and forth, telephone conversations. I couldn't possibly provide all of that information to you, but I'm telling you that we are in touch with them.

Your suggesting that we are not is totally false.

[Todd Doherty, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

Minister, that's coming from our stakeholders. That is not coming from me. I'm just reiterating their message.

Minister, Marine Atlantic will be receiving an additional $85 million, an increase of approximately 150%. Can you explain why there is this increase?

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

This funding is from an off-cycle funding decision in 2020. Marine Atlantic, of course, provides the constitutionally mandated ferry service between Newfoundland and Labrador and Canada's mainland. Marine Atlantic will continue to provide its ferry services. The funding will cover the operating shortfall in capital requirements of the corporation.

Again, like with VIA Rail, this is a standard procedure.

[The Chair, Liberal, Vance Badawey]

Thank you.

Mr. Scarpaleggia.

[Francis Scarpaleggia, Liberal, Lac-Saint-Louis, QC]

Thank you, Chair. Welcome, Minister.

I'd like to ask a question about the zero-emissions vehicles program. I believe there's $47.8 million allocated to incentives for this program in the supplementary estimates.

I'd like to know what the increase was in the first year of the program. Was it in line with what you expected? Supplementary to that, are we on track to meet our target? Is it a good, positive uptake?

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

Thank you, Mr. Scarpaleggia.

Originally, as you know, $300 million was approved in the budget, and we expected that this would be deployed over a three-year period; however, the uptake in the first year was more than we expected, to our very pleasant surprise, of course, because of our commitment towards cleaner vehicle technology.

This amount of $47.8 million is planned spending that comes from that $300 million funding envelope as we move forward. In fact, we doubt much, although COVID has slowed down things, as you can appreciate. We're feeling in January that [Technical difficulty—Editor]

[Francis Scarpaleggia, Liberal, Lac-Saint-Louis, QC]

Mr. Chair, I have a point of order. The minister cut off at one point.

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

—much past August to this year. That may be a little longer now.

[The Chair, Liberal, Vance Badawey]

Minister Garneau, you're cutting out. Can you repeat the last statement you made?

I think we've lost him.

Folks, we're going to suspend for a moment until we get Mr. Garneau back.

[The Chair, Liberal, Vance Badawey]

We will resume the meeting.

Mr. Scarpaleggia, you had about two and a half minutes left.

[Francis Scarpaleggia, Liberal, Lac-Saint-Louis, QC]

Thank you very much.

If you don't mind, Minister, I'll move on to VIA Rail. We know that there's some planning going on with respect to a high-frequency rail link from Quebec City to Toronto. Of course, that's of great interest to my constituents, because we're along the route. I'm wondering if you'd give us an idea of where we are in terms of coming to the end of the planning stages and starting the project.

As well, in terms of COVID security, I believe it is not required to wear a mask on trains, and yet it is on planes. That sounds counterintuitive, but I'm sure you can explain the difference.

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

With respect to the high-frequency train, the progress is continuing. Despite COVID, we've been able to move ahead on this project. As you may know, a joint project office was struck, composed of people from the Canada Infrastructure Bank as well as from VIA, and they are continuing. They are in the final phases of the assessment of this proposed link between Quebec City and Toronto. They are making steady progress. They are on schedule. They will be making recommendations to the government later this year.

We hope we'll be in a position sometime before the end of this year to make a decision on whether we will go ahead with this project and in exactly what form it will be. We do believe this is something that shows the promise of providing a faster service and a more reliable service. As you know, it would use its own dedicated rail lines.

With respect to the measures, at the moment there is limited service operating on VIA because of COVID. There's a requirement for only 50% volumes in each of the passenger cars, no more than that, to preserve distancing. It is recommended that people bring their masks and wear their masks where physical distancing is not possible. That hasn't happened very much so far because of the low volumes. Essentially, they're below 10% compared with normal volumes.

The difference between that and aircraft is that we know that with aircraft, the whole process of going to the airport, going through security, going to the gate and getting on board the airplane is a difficult environment in which to preserve physical distancing. We felt it was extremely important to mandate the wearing of masks. We think a different approach can be used with respect to passenger ships, such as ferries, and rail operations, where the approach is to recommend that masks be worn.

[Francis Scarpaleggia, Liberal, Lac-Saint-Louis, QC]

Thank you, Minister, for that answer.

Do I have time for one more?

[The Chair, Liberal, Vance Badawey]

You do have time for a quick question, Mr. Scarpaleggia.

[Francis Scarpaleggia, Liberal, Lac-Saint-Louis, QC]

This is on behalf of my colleague Churence Rogers, who couldn't be here.

Can you elaborate on the role of Marine Atlantic in supplying Newfoundland with food and other essential supplies? Can you comment on whether residents of Newfoundland and Labrador have any reason to be concerned about their province's food supply during the COVID crisis?

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

As you will know, the Marine Atlantic service is a constitutionally mandated service. It happened after Newfoundland and Labrador became part of Canada. It is a vital lifeline to provide the capability to move people and goods. We are very mindful of that.

I can tell you that we're monitoring the situation very closely because of the fact that one company, called Oceanex, which also resupplies Newfoundland, reduced some of its service. We have the capability through Marine Atlantic, which also can carry a great deal of cargo, to ensure that Newfoundlanders will not go without the vital supplies and goods they need. The situation is very much under control, even though the number of Marine Atlantic ferry passages has diminished because of the low volume of people.

[Francis Scarpaleggia, Liberal, Lac-Saint-Louis, QC]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Vance Badawey]

Mr. Barsalou-Duval.