Transport Committee on April 15th, 2021

[The Chair, Liberal, Vance Badawey]

Members, it's my pleasure to welcome you all and to open this meeting up. It's the 25th meeting of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities.

As you know, today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format, pursuant to the House order of January 25, 2021. The proceedings will be made available via the House of Commons website. So that you are aware, the webcast will always show the person speaking rather than the entirety of the committee.

To ensure an orderly meeting, I would like to outline a few points.

Members and witnesses may speak in the official language of their choice. Interpretation services are available for this meeting. You have the choice, at the bottom of your screen, of floor, English or French. For members participating in person, proceed as you usually would when the whole committee is meeting in person in a committee room. Keep in mind the directives from the Board of Internal Economy regarding masking and health protocols.

Before speaking, please wait until I recognize you by name. If you are on the video conference, please click on the microphone icon to unmute yourself. For those in the room, your microphone will be controlled as normal by the proceedings and verification officer.

Am I still coming through?

[Maninder Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton East, ON]

We can hear you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Vance Badawey]

Thank you.

If I may, as a reminder, all comments by members and witnesses should be addressed through the chair.

When you are not speaking, your mike should be on mute. With regard to a speaking list, the committee clerk and I will do the best we can to maintain the order of speaking for all members, whether they are participating virtually or in person.

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motion adopted by the committee on October 29, 2020, the committee will now continue its study of targeted infrastructure investments.

I would now like to welcome our witnesses and introduce you to them.

We have, from the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, Mr. Graydon Smith, president. From the Coastal First Nations Great Bear Initiative are Christine Smith-Martin, executive director; and Paul Kariya, senior policy adviser. From the Fédération québécoise des municipalités, we have Jacques Demers, president; and David Boulet, economic adviser. From the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative, we have Walter Sendzik, vice-chair and mayor of the city of St. Catharines. From the Regional Municipality of Niagara, we have Jim Bradley, regional chair; as well as Rob Foster, regional councillor from the town of Lincoln.

With that, members and witnesses, we're ready to go.

I am going to start off with the Association of Municipalities of Ontario for five minutes.

Mr. Smith, you have the floor.

[Graydon Smith, President, Association of Municipalities of Ontario]

Good afternoon, everybody.

My name's Graydon Smith. I'm president of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario.

Thank you for the invitation to address you today as you study targeted infrastructure investments and social and economic improvements in the lives of Canadians.

AMO believes that infrastructure can improve the lives of Ontario residents in all communities across the province. Ontario has 444 municipal governments that serve communities in all parts of the province. From our largest cities, such as Toronto and Ottawa, to farming communities in eastern and western Ontario, to Windsor and Essex county in the south, and Moosonee in the far north. All are dependent on infrastructure to improve the lives of their citizens.

In addition to being community governments providing direct services to residents, municipal governments are major players in our local economies and, by extension, in provincial and national economies. In Ontario, municipalities invest revenues of about $50 billion annually in our communities to provide needed services and capital works that support residents, workers and businesses.

These municipal investments provide ongoing stimulus for local economies in the short term and more efficient access to goods and services in the long term. In the recent pandemic, municipal services such as transit and transportation have kept essential workers going while others, such as sanitation, water and waste water have kept our residents healthy.

Ontario municipalities also are responsible for social housing and delivering social services and child care, which are critical supports to our residents, especially in times of emergency.

Of the $50 billion Ontario municipalities invest in our local economies annually, the majority—$41 billion—is own-source, such as property taxes, user fees and other revenues. The pandemic and lockdown measures have had a variable impact on municipal governments, with many municipalities deferring property tax payments for stressed residents and increasing costs for operations such as transit, while reducing user fees for services that cannot be safely offered.

Last year, Ontario’s financial accountability officer estimated the pandemic had a $6.8-billion negative impact on the province’s municipal governments. In recognition of this impact, the provincial and federal governments provided a much needed $4 billion in the safe restart agreement funding to Ontario municipalities to help with operating cost needs and transit. This financial support has been welcome, as it helped municipalities navigate the pandemic without major layoffs or staff reductions in critical services.

Recently, the Ontario government provided almost $1 billion in additional funding to support municipal services, operating costs, social services and transit, recognizing the ongoing impacts of the pandemic. Municipal governments appreciate this funding and hope that the federal government meets the province’s call to match these funds in the federal budget. Doing so ensures municipalities can continue to deliver quality public services and can continue to invest budgeted capital funds on infrastructure improvements. This in turn helps to ensure that local services and contractors can count on planned investments and hire workers.

AMO and our members also appreciate stable federal and provincial infrastructure funding, such as the investing in Canada infrastructure program, the Ontario community infrastructure fund, Ontario gas tax for transit and of course the federal gas tax fund.

Since its inception in 2005, municipal governments have appreciated the stability, flexibility and predictability of the gas tax fund. The recent announcement that the federal government will provide an additional $2.2 billion through 2021 with the new Canada community-building fund will support additional local infrastructure projects in areas such as road and bridge rehabilitation, transit and transportation, energy retrofits and water service improvements. These funds will be quickly put to use by municipal governments and act as a significant stimulus across communities.

Together with ICIP and Ontario infrastructure funds, these funding streams form a suite of programs that help to support substantial improvements in municipal infrastructure for our communities.

Since last spring, AMO and our members have also noted that the current pandemic's impacts are different from in previous recessions. The health emergency that it has caused has made the need for more, better and more affordable child care and housing obvious to more Canadians. These services are delivered by Ontario municipal governments and determine the ability of our residents to take part in our economies, earn a living, access services and live with [Technical difficulty—Editor]. While supports have been available, it is impossible to overstate the remaining need. Funding will be vital to meet it.

Finally, the committee's interested in broadband expansion and the role it can play in economic and social development. AMO and the Rural Ontario Municipal Association have been unequivocal in the need for better, affordable broadband services for our communities in Ontario. The pandemic has certainly revealed the major need for improvement required to allow people to work from home and access services remotely.

We're encouraged by the federal government’s investments such as the universal broadband fund and the Ontario government’s funding programs to support expansion. Better connectivity will have economic impacts for businesses, smart agriculture and logistics as well as the delivery of health and social programs, education and culture.

While we appreciate the recent investments, we know the need is great and the goalposts continue to move with new technology. We hope that the federal budget will help to accelerate attaining those objectives.

Thank you for the opportunity to share AMO’s views.

[The Chair, Liberal, Vance Badawey]

Thank you, Mr. Smith.

We're now going to move on to the Coastal First Nations Great Bear Initiative, Ms. Smith-Martin and Mr. Kariya. I'm not sure who is going to be making the presentation. I will leave that up to you.

[Paul Kariya, Senior Policy Advisor, Coastal First Nations Great Bear Initiative]

It's Paul Kariya here. My colleague Christine Smith-Martin, our executive director, is still struggling to get online. I don't think she's on, and I'm wondering if I could wait for her and if there's any way you could reorder.

[The Chair, Liberal, Vance Badawey]

You can. I can do that. It's no problem, Mr. Kariya.

[Paul Kariya]

Thanks very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Vance Badawey]

We'll move on to the Fédération québécoise des municipalités with Mr. Demers and Mr. Boulet. Once again I'm not sure who is going to make the presentation, but I will leave that up to you.

[Jacques Demers, President, Fédération québécoise des municipalités]

Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and members of the committee.

If it's all right, I'm going to say a few words about the organization, and then, David Boulet will take over.

My name is Jacques Demers, and I am the mayor of Sainte-Catherine-de-Hatley, reeve of the Memphrémagog regional county municipality, or RCM, and president of the Fédération québécoise des municipalités, FQM for short. I'm going to give you a brief overview of the FQM.

[The Chair, Liberal, Vance Badawey]

If I can just sneak in here.... If you could just move your mike up a bit, we're having a hard time hearing you.

[Jacques Demers]

Sorry. Is that better?

[The Chair, Liberal, Vance Badawey]

That's perfect.

[Jacques Demers]

I'll start over. My name is Jacques Demers, and I am the mayor of Sainte-Catherine-de-Hatley, reeve of the Memphrémagog regional county municipality, or RCM, and president of the Fédération québécoise des municipalités, FQM for short.

The FQM represents approximately a thousand local and regional municipalities across Quebec, and is the largest provincial association in Canada. Established in 1944, the FQM has been the voice of all of Quebec's regions and RCMs for the past 77 years, and truly speaks for rural communities. We are very proud to be here today.

Joining me is David Boulet, an economic adviser at the FQM, who will now take over.

[David Boulet, Economic Advisor, Fédération québécoise des municipalités]

Good afternoon, committee members.

[The Chair, Liberal, Vance Badawey]

Mr. Boulet, welcome.

[David Boulet]

Rural communities have their own distinct characteristics, and each of Quebec's regions is unique. The investments that regions need are different, so policy decisions need to reflect those realities. However, investments in regional infrastructure and services are still inadequate. It is apparently harder to convince governments to make investments in sparsely populated regions.

Conversely, those investments can have a larger impact in regions than elsewhere. Targeted investments, such as in high-speed Internet, have a huge impact on our regions and their appeal. In many cases, targeted and bold government investments make all the difference in a community's strength and survival.

Every year, the FQM redoubles its efforts to make governments at all levels understand the importance of infrastructure investments, whether in transportation, municipal systems or basic services region-wide, to ensure residents have access to adequate services.

The first iteration of the gas tax fund is a good example. The funding made it possible for municipalities to invest on a large scale in municipal buildings, fire stations and garages. Despite the FQM's repeated efforts, getting across to authorities—in this case, the federal government—the importance of investing in essential community buildings and public services is an ongoing challenge.

I want to bring up the Internet again. For the first time, on March 22, Quebec's premier and Canada's Prime Minister announced a massive investment and support to connect all Quebeckers to high-speed Internet, under Canada-Quebec operation high speed. The FQM applauds both levels of government for their bold action and commitment on this initiative, but it must be noted that this is the result of years and years of hard work by multiple stakeholders, and the FQM was among those leading the charge. By that, I mean writing open letters, and reaching out to members of Parliament and ministers in order to finally arrive at a real plan and commitments in support of 100% connectivity. It's important to recognize, not only this terrific news, but also the long road it took to get here. As the previous witness mentioned, high-speed Internet makes telework and distance learning possible, and gives people an important means of communication. There is no longer any doubt that high-speed Internet is an essential service.

In conclusion, the key message I want to share with this committee and other authorities is that all investments in rural communities and sparsely populated regions are just as important as investments in urban communities and more densely populated areas. Post-pandemic, other challenges will emerge when it comes to services to the public, cellular infrastructure, in particular. The FQM urges the federal government to act now with the certainty of knowing that a dollar spent in the regional and rural sector is a dollar well spent for all citizens.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Vance Badawey]

Thank you, Mr. Boulet, and thank you, Mr. Demers. That was very well done.

We're now going to move on to the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative, represented by Mr. Walter Sendzik. Walter is the vice-chair and is also the mayor of the city of St. Catharines.

Welcome, Walter.

[Walter Sendzik, Mayor of St. Catharines and Vice-Chair, Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative]

It's good to see you, Chair Badawey.

To the rest of the committee, thank you for the time that you're giving us today.

The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative is an organization of over 100 mayors from both the United States and Canada, working to ensure that our two countries can effectively use the largest freshwater resource in the world to propel our region's success into the 22nd century.

Our number one priority remains keeping people safe by stopping COVID-19. I want to thank Parliament and the Government of Canada for their financial support of municipalities and the doubling of the gas tax during these challenging times.

As a reminder, 80 years ago, the Canadian Parliament and the U.S. Congress worked together to create a joint vision that became the St. Lawrence Seaway. That inspired the creation of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, and many international bridge corporations, hydro dams, shipping locks and freshwater ports. It was a collective vision for how to drive this region's economy for generations to come, and it was a binational vision.

The electrification and automation of transportation, increased pollution, emerging toxins such as PFAS and PFOS, and invasive species such as Asian carp are some of the challenges facing the environment, our economy and the society of the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence region.

The main challenge that affects every other issue and decision in our region is climate change. Addressing climate change requires Canadian and American governments to have a joint vision, with funded plans that municipal governments can access to build for the future.

Canada's 10-year infrastructure programs and President Biden's administration's new infrastructure investments are critical for economic growth. Without a vision to sustainably build along the shores of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence for future growth, this new funding will not reach its full potential.

The Canadian government has spent $19 billion over 10 years in emergency disaster funding—most of that is due to flooding—to rebuild what was there before but not to rebuild to stop future flooding.

The following issues could easily be discussed in greater length, but I just want to touch on them. They are access to safe drinking water across North America, the likelihood of year-round shipping on the Great Lakes due to climate change, the cost of erosion to once stable shorelines, which we've seen all along the Great Lakes, and the effects of harmful algae blooms that put drinking water at risk and kill native species.

These issues cannot be solved locally. Extreme weather events can wash away a community's entire infrastructure in one storm. The local water treatment plant can be closed because of agricultural practices 300 kilometres away and a few days of hot weather.

When high water of 10 centimetres in Lake Ontario threatens Ajax or Kingston, with millions of dollars in damages, the easy solution is to open up a dam on the St. Lawrence to lower the water level in the lake. However, lowering that lake by 10 centimetres could increase the water levels in Montreal by a metre and cause billions in damages. We need real solutions that work for the entire basin region.

Last year, the cities initiative was part of a collaborative funded by Environment and Climate Change Canada that released the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence action plan for 2020-30. I submit these reports and their 30 recommendations to this committee for consideration. Much of the reports have been included in the Canada water agency consultations and the work being done by the Parliament of Canada's Great Lakes and St. Lawrence task force. It's the foundation for our parliamentary priorities, which were also submitted to this committee.

Today, the mayors of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence area have three messages.

One, please review our parliamentary priorities and ensure that all departments get a portion of the required $2.2 billion funding, over 10 years, that they need to protect this important watershed.

Two, invest in a one-time $7-billion investment, over two construction seasons, to help shoreline communities in Ontario and Quebec address their most urgent water and shoreline infrastructure and erosion mitigation projects. This could create over 150,000 jobs in the region. This program could quickly become a national program for all shoreline communities, with an investment of $9 billion to $11 billion over two construction seasons.

Finally, there are 19 federal government departments and agencies that oversee water policy or management in Canada. There are countless provincial and local government groups with some control or responsibility for the water in your community. It was 80 years ago that Canada and the United States came together to develop a long-term vision for the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence area. Now is the time to do this again. Before we spend historic amounts of infrastructure funding in the region, we need a plan for the region that recognizes the realities of the century that we're in and also the coming 22nd century.

Thank you for your time. I look forward to questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Vance Badawey]

Thank you, Mr. Sendzik. That was well done.

We're now going to move on to the Regional Municipality of Niagara. We have both Jim Bradley, regional chairman; and Rob Foster, regional councillor for the town of Lincoln.

Mr. Bradley, welcome. It's great to have you here.

You have the floor for five minutes.

[Jim Bradley, Regional Chair, Regional Municipality of Niagara]

Thank you for the invitation to speak with you this afternoon regarding Niagara’s perspective on approaches to enhancing federal infrastructure investments.

During the pandemic, regional council has remained committed to proceeding with many of its key capital infrastructure projects. Without the support and close collaboration of senior levels of government, financing for many of these infrastructure initiatives that support growth in the region and house our most vulnerable residents would not be possible. It is critical that municipalities receive predictable, stable funding that can be invested in the necessary capital projects that sustain our communities.

As many federal investment programs are competitive and application-based, considerable resources are required to manage and report on these potential funding opportunities. In contrast, allocation-based funding would enable us to effectively budget for small and, especially, large-scale projects and aid in the region’s overall long-range infrastructure planning. It would also ensure fairness for upper-tier municipalities, considering a disproportionate number of funding programs are geared to rural, lower and single-tier municipalities. Moreover, through our rigorous asset management process, we ensure that our key projects align with the policy priorities and expectations of the federal government by incorporating new environmental and clean energy practices and innovative technologies into the design and construction of regional projects.

Four critical infrastructure projects that will influence social, economic and environmental outcomes by supporting our most vulnerable communities while generating more jobs, trade and commerce include affordable housing, a new waste-water treatment plant, a new trade corridor and broadband.

With affordable rental vacancy rates at virtually 0% in Niagara, our wait-list continues to grow. Our proposed multi-residential modular project outlined in our federal rapid housing initiative funding program application was intended to create new housing for people with the highest core need. This innovative delivery model was an optimum solution because it would house tenants much sooner than if we relied on conventional building models.

Full federal funding would have offset the capital costs and allowed Niagara region to operate the building as 100% geared to income, as there would have been no mortgage required. This was a perfect opportunity to begin to address a significant problem in Niagara. However, Niagara’s unsuccessful RHI application has stalled this shovel-ready project.

With respect to the planned south Niagara Falls waste-water treatment plant, eligibility requirements appear ambiguous under the yet-to-be announced ICIP green stream fund, and questions regarding this project’s potential qualifications and available funding remain unclear. Since this project will be highly dependent on external funding, considerable uncertainty has been created about whether it can proceed without timely funding.

With three access points between Canada and the U.S., Niagara region is a significant economic hub that is central for enabling cross-border trade and tourism. As Niagara region will continue to grow by 30% over the next 20 years, there will be an increasing demand on Niagara’s highways, and it will be important to construct alternative trade routes through the region. Niagara region has experienced challenges qualifying for national trade corridor funding, which may be corrected should the program be expanded to include indirect transportation routes, which are the essential building blocks for a complete trade corridor, to international markets.

I will now pass this over to Councillor Rob Foster, who will speak to our challenges with broadband service.

[The Chair, Liberal, Vance Badawey]

Welcome, Rob.

[Rob Foster, Regional Councillor, Town of Lincoln, Regional Municipality of Niagara]

Thank you, Chair Bradley.

Thank you, Chair Badawey. It's good to see you.

As you, MP Bittle, MP Baldinelli and MP Allison are all aware, Niagara region comprises a large rural base that has experienced tremendous challenges throughout the pandemic in staying connected and informed. This has been due to the lack of broadband service. The region certainly appreciates the government’s recent $4.4-million investment to expand broadband in Niagara region. Nevertheless, 54% of Niagara region’s roads and 13% of its land parcels remain underserviced, and $100 million will still be required over the long term to meet the broadband Internet needs of the Niagara community.

Therefore, it is essential for the federal government to invest in scalable broadband technology that will be relevant over the next decade, as opposed to funding short-term solutions that may not meet the ever-increasing broadband demands. In addition, it is paramount that the coordination between the funding programs be improved to ensure that organizations are not duplicating efforts by bidding on the same broadband service areas, which has resulted in nullified applications. A coordinated funding approach will better alleviate the gaps in coverage in our underserviced areas.

[Jim Bradley]

That concludes our opening remarks, and we welcome any questions should there be any.

[The Chair, Liberal, Vance Badawey]

Thank you, Chair Bradley and Councillor Foster.

We're now going to move on to the Coastal First Nations Great Bear Initiative.

I'm not sure, Mr. Clerk, if Ms. Smith-Martin is logged on. Is she logged on?