Evidence of meeting #27 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 projects.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:25 p.m.
NDP
Taylor Bachrach NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Ms. Gillis, are there any technical reasons that the permanent transit fund does not kick in until 2026?
5:25 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Infrastructure and Communities, Office of Infrastructure of Canada
Mr. Chair, we'll be completing the integrated bilateral agreements in the 2027-28 time frame. We have the funding right now from the $15 billion that was announced by the minister and the Prime Minister just over a month ago. That will include both bridge funding for those large transit projects that are advanced and will require funding between now and 2026, as well as the other streams that we talked about—rural, active and ZEBs. Then we will be doing an extensive consultation on the permanent public transit fund, which will begin in 2026.
5:25 p.m.
NDP
Taylor Bachrach NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
If I'm clear, the consultation on the permanent transit fund is going to begin in 2026. I thought that's what you said.
5:25 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Infrastructure and Communities, Office of Infrastructure of Canada
Sorry; we will begin a consultation later this year on the permanent public transit for that particular program, and the program will begin in 2026. In the meantime, we do have the integrated bilateral agreement and we do have the money and the funds that were announced just over a month ago.
5:25 p.m.
NDP
Taylor Bachrach NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Mr. Chair, I have one more really quick question for Ms. Gillis.
5:25 p.m.
NDP
Taylor Bachrach NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Why is there a decline of $1 billion in the departmental estimates?
5:25 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Infrastructure and Communities, Office of Infrastructure of Canada
In the overall funding, the estimates for grants and contributions are down by just over $1 billion. Those estimates for our grants and contributions are based on working with provinces and territories with projects that have been approved and based on understanding the cash requirements that would be needed to satisfy those particular projects. The main difference, as we see in the details of the exact programs, has been a payout under the projects from budget 2016 for our clean water and waste water, as well as our public transit infrastructure fund.
5:30 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey
Thank you, Ms. Gillis. Thank you, Mr. Bachrach, and thank you to all members today and to all the witnesses.
Minister McKenna and your entire team, thank you for coming out and giving us your time today. It was a great meeting, with lots to be chatted about. We got a lot of great answers.
Before I adjourn, I want to remind members, as I did last meeting, about the reports that were distributed for the aircraft certification study. Once again, if members have any suggestions or edits, it would be very helpful if you could submit those to the clerk so we can have them in writing in both official languages when the committee begins consideration of that draft report.
On the topic of reports, the analysts will soon be drafting the report on the study of the Canada Infrastructure Bank. It would also be helpful for the analysts if members can submit their drafting instructions to the clerk before that happens.
With that, I'm hoping that those who didn't submit yet would do so to expedite these processes through the committee stages. That way we can fit some more studies in, and with that, fit some more reports in.
Members, once again, thank you. We'll see you next Tuesday.
Now it's my pleasure now to adjourn the meeting.