Transport Committee on March 23rd, 2021

[The Chair, Liberal, Vance Badawey]

Thank you, Mr. El-Khoury.

Mr. Barsalou-Duval.

[Xavier Barsalou-Duval, Bloc, Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I somewhat share the opinions expressed by most of the colleagues around the table. I think this is a sensitive and important topic, since lives are at stake. As for whether this issue could have been handled by the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development, that is a good question. I don't know whether that committee has looked into this, but I would like to know.

The number of meetings could be high. This committee has many topics on its agenda. It may be necessary to hold a subcommittee meeting to plan meetings, including the next one, which will be held after our current study. Our work is starting to progress in terms of the studies on the agenda.

At first glance, I don't have anything against my colleague's proposal, but for the time being, I am unsure I can commit and vote. I would rather propose that this be submitted and that we come back to it soon in subcommittee. I don't know whether the chair has planned something in that direction. This way, we could really determine what direction we want to take.

[The Chair, Liberal, Vance Badawey]

Thank you, Mr. Barsalou-Duval.

Mr. Bachrach.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I certainly support the direction of the motion. I would echo some of the comments from the other members regarding focusing on the aspects that are most relevant to this committee. I think Mrs. Kusie makes an excellent point, that it is the Minister of Transport who has been tasked with this topic and that it would behoove the committee to look into it.

In terms of the number of meetings, I would go with the will of the group, but it seems like a relatively reasonable number. I think we can deal with it today and move on to other topics and still hear from our witnesses.

[The Chair, Liberal, Vance Badawey]

Thank you, Mr. Bachrach.

Mr. Fillmore.

[Andy Fillmore, Liberal, Halifax, NS]

Thank you, Chair.

It's good to hear some of the other points of view. I'm not sure if the members will be ready to vote on this today, but maybe one thing we can do to move us closer, anyway, or a little further down the road, is to propose an amendment on the number of meetings.

I'd like to propose that we amend the number of meetings from five down to two and see how that sits with our colleagues.

[The Chair, Liberal, Vance Badawey]

Thank you, Mr. Fillmore.

We have an amendment. Are there any questions or comments on the amendment?

(Amendment agreed to: yeas 11; nays 0 [See Minutes of Proceedings])

(Motion as amended agreed to: yeas 11; nays 0)

Thank you, Mr. Clerk, and thank you, members.

We'll go back to Mrs. Kusie.

Mrs. Kusie, you have the floor.

[Stephanie Kusie, Conservative, Calgary Midnapore, AB]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you very much to the committee members for being open to this motion. I believe the victims' families as well as Canadians will appreciate that we agreed to study this. Thank you very much.

I will pass my time to Mr. Scheer.

Thank you very much, Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Vance Badawey]

Thank you, Mrs. Kusie.

We're now going to move to Ms. Jaczek.

Ms. Jaczek, you have the floor for five minutes.

[Andrew Scheer, Conservative, Regina—Qu'Appelle, SK]

On a point of order, Mr. Chair, I just want to clarify that Mrs. Kusie said she was going to pass her time to me. Am I to understand that she was out of time?

[The Chair, Liberal, Vance Badawey]

Actually, no, Mr. Scheer. You are correct. You do have three minutes and 10 seconds. Go ahead.

[Andrew Scheer, Conservative, Regina—Qu'Appelle, SK]

Okay. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Vance Badawey]

My apologies.

[Andrew Scheer, Conservative, Regina—Qu'Appelle, SK]

No, not at all. I totally understand.

I just want to go back to Mr. Cory, if I may.

You indicated that one of the examples of private sector investment is the Alberta irrigation districts. Where do the Alberta irrigation districts get their funding from?

[Ehren Cory]

I'm actually going to ask Mr. Casola to talk a little bit more about the structure of the agreement.

[John Casola]

Thank you.

The irrigation districts are made up of farmers. They charge fees on the acres of irrigable land that they have that makes up part of the irrigation district. To be absolutely clear, there's no government money that funds the irrigation districts. It is all paid for by the farmers who make up the geographies that are in those districts.

[Andrew Scheer, Conservative, Regina—Qu'Appelle, SK]

The irrigation districts were created by an act of provincial parliament, though. Is that not correct?

[John Casola]

That's correct. That's my understanding, but the funding all comes from the hard-working farmers of Alberta. That's where the money comes from.

[Andrew Scheer, Conservative, Regina—Qu'Appelle, SK]

So there's no funding that comes from the Alberta government to the irrigation districts. Is that your position?

[John Casola]

That's our understanding.

[Andrew Scheer, Conservative, Regina—Qu'Appelle, SK]

Okay.

I'm just looking at a headline here from Alberta Farmer Express, which says, “Irrigation districts say they're grateful for provincial funding.” There are dozens and dozens of announcements about the Government of Alberta providing funding to irrigation projects by providing taxpayers' money directly to the irrigation districts. The irrigation districts are created by an act of provincial parliament.

In your mind, does the irrigation district meet the test for being a private sector entity?

[John Casola]

It does, with flying colours. The money that the Alberta government provides is on a project-by-project basis, and they tended to do small projects until our arrival. Our arrival and the structure that we put in place allowed for the largest irrigation project in the history of Alberta, and the $163 million comes from the farmers of Alberta.

[Ehren Cory]

To be clear, if I may just add, there is, of course, also Government of Alberta funding provided to that project, the three parties to that being the eight irrigation districts, the Government of Alberta and the CIB.

[Andrew Scheer, Conservative, Regina—Qu'Appelle, SK]

Mr. Cory, I think you said that the amount of funding was $150 million. Is that right?

[Ehren Cory]

From the irrigation districts themselves, it was $163 million.