Transport Committee on Oct. 10th, 2024

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Mr. Chair, I want to thank my honourable colleague for understanding the dangers and costs of climate change, which is something I know members of his own party do not acknowledge. I know that there are members in that party who deny the existence of climate change altogether.

[Brad Vis, Conservative, Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC]

Thank you, Minister. I'm trying to ask a very serious question.

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

I will say that the issues that my honourable colleague has raised relating to CN and CP will be taken under advisement. I am committed to working with CN and CP to ensure that the rail network is sound.

[Brad Vis, Conservative, Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC]

Thank you.

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

I will continue to say that we'll work with the railways to make sure that the infrastructure is resilient.

[Brad Vis, Conservative, Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC]

I'm going to ask one more quick question.

The Nooksack and Sumas watershed transboundary flood initiative is an international collaborative framework to identify actions to reduce flood risk and restore habitats. Why is the Government of Canada not working with our counterparts in the United States to address this area of common concern? We have the province of British Columbia on the line. Why is the federal Department of Transport not participating in these critical international discussions?

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Mr. Vis, I am going to have to just cut you off there. That's not relevant to what we're discussing here today, sir.

[Brad Vis, Conservative, Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC]

Mr. Chair, I will challenge you on that point. The border is within kilometres of the rail lines in discussion. The rail lines cannot operate unless we consider the impact of the Nooksack River just over the border in the United States. It is completely relevant to the reliability of rail passenger services in Canada. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

I appreciate that, Mr. Vis. There are five seconds left in your time. If the minister wants to respond to that, there are five seconds left.

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

I thank the member for the question.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you.

We will now turn it over, finally, to Mr. Badawey. We don't have much time. I'll allow you to have one question, sir, and then I have to let the minister go.

[Vance Badawey, Liberal, Niagara Centre, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Actually, Mr. Vis's comments and questions are a perfect segue in terms of the question that I have.

We have heard from the minister that she is ensuring that we have a commitment to passenger safety. We have heard that she wants to have a commitment from Via Rail with respect to enhanced customer service, a focus on reliability, and, as we heard in previous meetings, the compensation that was afforded to the passengers.

What I want to do, and as a segue from Mr. Vis, is to speak about and ask about the infrastructure investments that have been made. As we all recognize, NTCF was a fund that was introduced by former ministers and of course that has allocated and appropriated many funds to ensure that the infrastructure in place was brought up to date, in particular as it relates to rail improvements. However, where I'm going with this is twofold.

Within a more integrated multimodal network, we recognize that, not only here in Canada but binationally, we are seeing some challenges with the integration of all methods of transportation. Do you feel comfortable that Via can handle future expectations on levels of service within a more robust integrated transportation network with respect to the investments that have been made and the investments that are expected to be made to ensure the movement of both trade and people, such as this corridor that Via is travelling on?

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

First of all, I'd like to thank the honourable member for his service as parliamentary secretary in this role and the leadership that he provided, certainly, before I came into the role as minister.

I want to say a couple of things. First, at a high level, I want to contrast the investments that we have made as a government in Via Rail to replace its aging fleet—$490 million in 2021, $354 million in 2022, $210 million in 2023, and in 2024, funding a new fleet—with the investments of the Conservative Party of Canada: 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013—zero dollars invested. Since taking office, our government has invested over $797 million in replacing the corridor fleet, so I will say that we have evidenced a commitment to Via Rail as a whole.

I know that the honourable member is very concerned, and rightly so, with supply chain resiliency, and I appreciate his work on that matter. The national trade corridors fund is a trade-enabling infrastructure program. It helps infrastructure owners and users to invest in critical assets that support economic activity and the physical movement of goods and people, so to date our government has approved $4.1 billion in federal funding for 213 projects across the country, leveraging a total investment of $10.7 billion.

The answer to your question, then, is yes, it is important.

[Vance Badawey, Liberal, Niagara Centre, ON]

Thank you, Minister.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much, Mr. Badawey, and thank you, Minister, on behalf of all members of the committee. We want to thank you for your time here today.

Colleagues, I'm going to suspend for two minutes so we can transfer over to the next round of witnesses. The meeting is now suspended.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

I call this meeting back to order. I'd like to once again welcome our witnesses from the transport department. We'll begin our line of questioning right away, with Mr. Lawrence.

Mr. Lawrence, the floor is yours. You have six minutes, sir.

[Philip Lawrence, Conservative, Northumberland—Peterborough South, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the witnesses for appearing, or in some cases staying. We appreciate that. Thank you, in all seriousness, for being here in person. It makes the questioning much easier, so I do appreciate it when the officials are able to make it down with us. Thank you for that.

I just want to start by having you give us a bit of understanding. In the minister's testimony, I got a little inconsistency, if I'm honest, in the fact that she was both saying that we as a federal government are not responsible for Via, and at the same time saying that Via will do better.

Does the Minister of Transport, in accordance with the agreement or the association between the Government of Canada and Via, have the authority to improve the service of Via Rail, in your understanding of their agreement?

[Arun Thangaraj]

Via Rail, as a Crown corporation, like other Crowns, is responsible for its operations, so it is up to the management of Via Rail, when an incident like this happens or just in their regular operations, to ensure performance. It's the responsibility of the board of Via Rail to ensure that happens in their interaction, so the minister, as the portfolio minister responsible, will set expectations to the chair of the board.

[Philip Lawrence, Conservative, Northumberland—Peterborough South, ON]

Are those expectations public?

[Craig Hutton, Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Policy, Department of Transport]

In terms of the expectations, those letters of expectation go directly from the minister to the board chair.

[Philip Lawrence, Conservative, Northumberland—Peterborough South, ON]

Could you provide us with those letters of expectation?

[Craig Hutton]

We'll go back and take a look at what we can provide to the committee in terms of letters of expectation.

[Philip Lawrence, Conservative, Northumberland—Peterborough South, ON]

Okay. I would just like unanimous consent to request that this official provide those documents to the committee.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Yes, Ms. Koutrakis?

[Annie Koutrakis, Liberal, Vimy, QC]

I just have a clarification. If I'm not mistaken, when the minister was here, in response to one of the questions she did commit to forwarding to us the letters—her letter to Via Rail, the expectations. If I'm not mistaken, she has already committed to doing that.