Transport Committee on June 16th, 2020

[Taylor Bachrach, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Minister, I have one more question, and I'm concerned that I'm going to run out of time. Thank you for that little bit of information.

I'm still concerned about the Parliamentary Budget Officer's not being able to obtain all the details on tens of thousands of infrastructure projects. In the House, you mentioned that some of these projects are confidential. I'm concerned because it seems to me that the Parliamentary Budget Officer should be able, as an officer of Parliament, to look at confidential details. Is that not the case? He's just looking for proof. He says that he believes they exist, but that “It's hard to be convinced. I have faith they do exist, but I don't have [any] proof...”. Is there some way that your department can provide the PBO with proof that these projects exist?

[Catherine McKenna, Liberal, Ottawa Centre, ON]

It's important that Canadians understand that we've provided information about all of the projects, so on 33,000 projects, we have detailed information.

I know the member would care greatly about this. When we talk about CMHC projects, those are under bilateral agreements. We've provided information on a whole range of those projects, but provinces and territories, to protect the privacy of individuals and the security of survivors of domestic violence, give us aggregated claim information for some projects. They do not provide project-level detail, but their claim information is audited by a third party. In the interest of transparency, we've included these taxpayer-funded projects in our overall count. It's important to recognize that the information really lies with the provinces and territories.

As I say, in these cases, for some of the CMHC projects, the information is not provided disaggregated to us because the provinces and territories do not want to be providing us with information that would impede the privacy of individuals and the security of survivors. This has been transmitted to the Parliamentary Budget Officer.

Maybe my deputy might like to add to that.

[Kelly Gillis]

Again, with what the minister had said, we've provided the Parliamentary Budget Officer with all of the information at the aggregate level from CMHC to support the information in the expenditure, which is audited. We also provided the Parliamentary Budget Officer with the information on the gas tax, because 12,000 of the projects relate to the approximate spending or the approximate projects from the gas tax annually—the $2.2 billion that is expended on that fund—that support communities across the country.

[The Chair, Liberal, Vance Badawey]

Mr. Doherty, you have five minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Minister.

Minister, for the sake of time, wherever possible please be as succinct as possible with your answers.

Minister, is it not true that your government shut down PPP Canada despite the fact that they'd invested over $1.3 billion in 25 Canadian projects?

[Catherine McKenna, Liberal, Ottawa Centre, ON]

I will ask my deputy to answer this.

[Kelly Gillis]

PPP Canada was dissolved into Infrastructure Canada in 2018. Particular projects continue to advance. We are opening those contracts right now.

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

Minister, how many projects has the new iteration, the Canada Infrastructure Bank, announced?

[Catherine McKenna, Liberal, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Well, first of all, I'm very pleased. There was a great announcement last week that they're advancing working with the Government of Alberta to—

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

The total number of projects announced to date.

[Catherine McKenna, Liberal, Ottawa Centre, ON]

That's one investment looking at the possibility of investing in a train between Calgary and Banff National Park.

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

The total number.

[Catherine McKenna, Liberal, Ottawa Centre, ON]

They've announced investments. I'm happy to, if you just give me a moment, list them for you.

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

I don't need the details. I just want a number.

[Catherine McKenna, Liberal, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Well, they've announced four investments. They also have memorandums of understanding and advisory engagements on six projects: VIA high-frequency rail, Lulu Island District Energy, Talston hydroelectric, Pirate Harbour Wind Farm, Kivalliq hydro-fibre link and Calgary-Banff passenger rail.

I've been talking. I've had many conversations with the new chair of the Infrastructure Bank about additional projects. As well, I've had discussions with my counterparts in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and across the country. There are huge opportunities.

I would hope that your party would support leveraging the [Technical difficulty—Editor] have more money to invest in infrastructure projects.

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

Minister, I'm glad to hear that you're having these discussions.

How many of these projects have been completed since its inception?

[Catherine McKenna, Liberal, Ottawa Centre, ON]

If the member would like to do a tour of the Réseau express métropolitain light rail in Montreal, I'm happy.... I've had a chance to visit it. It is well under way. It's going to make a huge difference.

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

Is it finished?

[Catherine McKenna, Liberal, Ottawa Centre, ON]

It is under construction, but I think that maybe the member would probably, I would assume, want us to make sure that we are being careful with taxpayer dollars. As much as you want to go ahead quickly, these are major projects. You need to look at the business case for those projects. As I said, the Infrastructure Bank makes decisions, but we know there are huge opportunities to move forward. We're working with provinces and territories to do so.

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

All right. Thanks, Minister.

Minister, how much did the Government of Canada pay in bonuses to the former CEO?

[Catherine McKenna, Liberal, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Just to be clear again—I think we went through this—the Canada Infrastructure Bank—

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

Were those performance bonuses?

[Catherine McKenna, Liberal, Ottawa Centre, ON]

—operates at arm's length from the Government of Canada, which asks for the statement of priorities and accountabilities. They develop a compensation policy that reflects the best Crown corporations and other comparable organizations—

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

But would those be performance-based bonuses? Based on the performance of the CEO, they would be eligible for those bonuses, correct?

[Catherine McKenna, Liberal, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Once again, I said that the Infrastructure Bank develops a compensation policy that reflects the best practices of Crown corporations—