Evidence of meeting #19 for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was bank.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:10 p.m.
The Clerk
If you want my interpretation on what the rule would then cover off—and I hope this is Mr. Barsalou-Duval's understanding as well—if we remove the text, as Mr. Bachrach suggested, "or any motion in amendment of a substantive motion", this would still cover situations in which the committee was in a portion of committee business and a member brought forward a motion that perhaps had not had the 48 hours' notice and had not been distributed beforehand. Any such motion that comes off the floor in that manner would have to be made in both official languages.
5:10 p.m.
Bloc
Xavier Barsalou-Duval Bloc Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, QC
I'm not sure whether I understood the clerk's interpretation.
I gather that, if 48 hours' notice hasn't been provided beforehand, any motions moved in the meeting should be distributed in English and French.
If so, I'm comfortable with this approach. This means that, if we choose to move motions, we must do so in both official languages. In terms of amendments, we could still move them in the meeting.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey
Essentially what I'm hearing from Mr. Bachrach and the clerk, is that the text of this motion would read,
That the text of any substantive motion be distributed in writing in both official languages to all Committee members before the Committee begins debate on such a motion.
Is that what you're looking for Mr. Barsalou-Duval?
5:10 p.m.
Bloc
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey
Okay.
Mr. Bachrach, do you have any further questions?
Are there any further questions from members of the committee?
With that, we'll go to the vote, Mr. Clerk.
5:10 p.m.
The Clerk
Once again, so that it's clear for me, that amendment by Mr. Bachrach to remove that language has been accepted?
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey
Yes. We have committee consenting to that and Mr. Barsalou-Duval's acceptance of it.
Did you want me to read it again, Michael?
5:10 p.m.
The Clerk
I understand where we're at and I'll just put the vote to the committee.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey
Thank you, Michael.
(Motion agreed to: yeas 11; nays 0)
Thank you, members.
Thank you, Mr. Clerk, and thank you to the mover, Mr. Barsalou-Duval.
We'll now move back to the speaker, Mr. El-Khoury.
You still have the floor, and you have about four minutes left.
5:15 p.m.
Liberal
Fayçal El-Khoury Liberal Laval—Les Îles, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'll come back to the REM project, because this major project is vital and so important for Quebeckers and for a number of communities and municipalities in the vicinity.
First, people must know that the economy goes hand in hand with green infrastructure if we want to protect the environment.
Ms. Gillis, how do you plan to run this project in a way that respects these key components of the environment so that people feel that the environment is being protected and that their quality of life is being preserved? What measures will you implement as part of this project?
5:15 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Infrastructure and Communities, Office of Infrastructure of Canada
Thank you for the questions.
In terms of major projects, several of the Canada Infrastructure Bank's priority areas are green sectors.
If we take the example of public transit, we can see that reducing greenhouse gas emissions provides major climate benefits. The Canada Infrastructure Bank's corporate plan outlines the commitments to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The plan looks at what can be done in this sector, what positive steps could be taken, and how to ensure transparency in this area.
A number of other projects related to the priorities focus on clean power and transmission. These aspects significantly affect the environment because they help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
5:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey
Thank you, Mr. El-Khoury, and Ms. Gillis.
Mr. Barsalou-Duval, go ahead.
5:15 p.m.
Bloc
Xavier Barsalou-Duval Bloc Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, QC
Mr. Chair, I took a lot of time to move my motions.
I'm ready to give the floor to the next speaker. As far as I know, it's Mr. Bachrach.
5:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey
Thank you, Mr. Barsalou-Duval.
Mr. Bachrach, the floor is yours for two and a half minutes.
5:15 p.m.
NDP
Taylor Bachrach NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Ms. Gillis, I'd like to return to these questions around climate accountability and the infrastructure expenditures.
As I mentioned in my question to the minister, the response to our Order Paper question showed some pretty surprising results in terms of the number of projects that didn't undergo any climate lens assessment. Moreover, 15 of the projects that were assessed showed zero emissions.
I'm wondering if you could explain how an infrastructure project has zero greenhouse gas emissions.
5:15 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Infrastructure and Communities, Office of Infrastructure of Canada
As we're looking at projects within Infrastructure Canada, as you're well aware and the minister mentioned today, there is a climate lens requirement for projects that are over $10 million and green projects. The climate lens, as it stands currently, requires project proponents to undertake an assessment and to certify, by professionals, the analysis undertaken by that climate lens assessment. Within the examples you're quoting, that would be related to that particular assessment.
Now, it could be that.... There's a resilience factor and there's a GHG emission factor. Sometimes a project requires one or the other and sometimes both. Depending on the type of project you're looking at, there may in fact not be an emission reduction.
5:20 p.m.
NDP
Taylor Bachrach NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Well, I wasn't referring to emission reductions; I was referring to greenhouse gas emissions. My understanding is that those 15 projects showed zero greenhouse gas impacts whatsoever.
I'm just trying to understand how that could be the case. What kind of infrastructure project would result in zero emissions?
5:20 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Infrastructure and Communities, Office of Infrastructure of Canada
I'd have to look at those particular projects, but it could maybe be a playground—I don't know. I'd have to look at the projects and the analysis. I wouldn't want to guess.
5:20 p.m.
NDP
Taylor Bachrach NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
I keep trying to get at the nub of this.
If you're going to spend $180 billion between now and 2030 on infrastructure and there's a 10-megatonne target for greenhouse gas reductions, how did the department arrive at that 10-megatonne target? How was it selected? Why is it 10? Why not 50, or five?
5:20 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Infrastructure and Communities, Office of Infrastructure of Canada
The $187-billion infrastructure plan overall involves 21 departments and 85 programs. Although there is a discussion of a climate lense overall in the enhanced climate plan, the climate lens that we're talking about is with regard to Infrastructure Canada's programming for disaster mitigation, the integrated bilateral agreements programs. That's where the applicability of that comes from.
In designing the plan originally, four or five years ago, they were looking at the opportunities for the types of projects that were going to be coming through—the integrated bilateral agreements. Granted, we do not select the projects. It is up to the communities and the provinces to prioritize them and then to bring them to us.
In looking at the types of green, there's just under $10 billion in the green stream for opportunities for investments, and 45% of that particular stream must be on emission reduction targets. That's what the original thinking was.
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey
Thank you, Ms. Gillis, and Mr. Bachrach.
We're now going to move to the Conservatives.
Mr. Shipley, you have the floor for five minutes.
5:20 p.m.
Conservative
Doug Shipley Conservative Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON
Thank you, Chair, and thank you to our witnesses for being here today.
I'm going to start with Mr. Campbell.
Mr. Campbell, I noticed in your bio that you're from the transition office. When it was first transitioning to the Canada Infrastructure Bank, was there a business plan originally created for the transition?
February 25th, 2021 / 5:20 p.m.
Glenn Campbell Assistant Deputy Minister, Investment, Partnerships and Innovation, Office of Infrastructure of Canada
Mr. Chair, I was the executive director in charge of the government's effort to support and build out the Canada Infrastructure Bank between Infrastructure Canada and Finance Canada, which was largely a plan around moving towards the legislation that was brought before Parliament. At that juncture, there was a plan towards seeking the legislative authority, which was achieved in June of 2017. At the same time, a chairperson was appointed. We worked with that chairperson on behalf of the corporation to develop its first corporate plan, which became its business plan that evolved over the next couple of years of building out the bank.