Transport Committee on May 30th, 2022

[Omar Alghabra, Liberal, Mississauga Centre, ON]

Mr. Chair, we are working with the sector on sustainable fuel and new technologies to identify and work with new fuels that will reduce emissions yet be able to operate a plane safely and efficiently. Absolutely, we are working with the airline sector. That—

[Terry Dowdall, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

Do you know that Canada is 107th right now in the world in cost competitiveness in the air field?

[Omar Alghabra, Liberal, Mississauga Centre, ON]

Mr. Chair, it's a priority for me to ensure that we have a competitive airspace sector and airline sector. It is true that Canada, given its unique landscape and geography, has some challenges, but our priority is the safety of Canadians and the efficiency and productivity of the aviation sector.

[Terry Dowdall, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

Let's try to get that number down a little bit from 107th.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much, Mr. Dowdall.

Thank you very much, Minister.

The last three minutes we have will go to Mr. Iacono.

Mr. Iaconno, the floor is yours. You have three minutes.

[Angelo Iacono, Liberal, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

Hello.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you for being with us this morning, Mr. Alghabra. I also want to thank the staff members with you.

Mr. Alghabra, the 2022‑23 Main Estimates show a 39% increase over last year, which is very substantial. That can primarily be attributed to the increase in planned expenditures for the national trade corridors fund, or NTCF.

Can you explain the government's proposed increase for this initiative?

[Omar Alghabra, Liberal, Mississauga Centre, ON]

It's important to talk about this, because one of the reasons there is an increase in the estimates is the national trade corridors fund. This trade corridors fund is intended to enhance resilience in our supply chains.

Our government had the foresight from last year to include an additional $1.9 billion of investment in the trade corridors fund to ensure that our supply chains would be enhanced and strengthened by a total now of $4.2 billion over the last four or five years. This year's budget also offered another almost $500 million.

The reason there is this significant increase is to reflect the increase and the recapitalization that we've seen in the national trade corridors fund.

[Angelo Iacono, Liberal, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Alghabra.

Can you give us some examples of projects funded by the NTCF?

[Omar Alghabra, Liberal, Mississauga Centre, ON]

Mr. Chair, in my opening remarks, I talked about my visit to New Brunswick last week to support the Port of Saint John, but here are some examples. There is $50 million for the Montreal airport to renovate the cargo deck. There is another $50 million to the City of Montreal to improve road access between the Trans-Canada Highway and the port of Montreal. There is $33 million to the Port de Trois-Rivières to increase cargo capacity there by almost 50%. There is $5.5 million to the Hamilton-Oshawa Port Authority for the pier 10 export expansion project; and $5 million to the Alberta Midland Railway Terminal phase 2 expansion, and the list goes on.

I'd be happy to provide additional examples to you, Mr. Iacono.

[Angelo Iacono, Liberal, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Alghabra.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you, Mr. Iacono.

Minister, on behalf of the committee, I'd like to thank you once again for appearing here today, and for providing us with your testimony.

Colleagues, I'm going to suspend the meeting for two minutes, so I can let the minister and his departmental officials leave.

We can then set up to welcome the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Infrastructure and Communities.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Honourable colleagues, this meeting has now resumed. To the second half of our meeting, we are overjoyed to welcome the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Infrastructure and Communities, the Honourable Dominic LeBlanc. He is joined by the following departmental officials: Kelly Gillis, deputy minister, infrastructure and communities; Alison O'Leary, senior assistant deputy minister, communities and infrastructure programs; and Glenn Campbell, assistant deputy minister, investment, partnerships and innovation.

Minister, it is a pleasure to welcome you and your team before the committee for the first time in person in quite some time. Before I turn it over to you for your opening remarks, I believe Mr. Badawey has a quick motion to get out of the way.

[Vance Badawey, Liberal, Niagara Centre, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Most members, if not all members, have received the travel budget coming into the third quarter of this coming year, September. I wish to put a motion forward to accept that travel budget.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you, Mr. Badawey.

I believe, Mr. Clerk, the reason we're doing this now is that we're on a tight deadline. Are there any objections to getting that out of the way at the beginning of the meeting?

(Motion agreed to)

It is adopted.

Honourable Minister, the floor is yours. You have five minutes for your opening remarks.

[Dominic LeBlanc, Liberal, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs]

Mr. Chair, thank you. I want to assure you and colleagues that I share your overjoyed feeling to be here with you. I assure you that the pleasure is, in fact, mine.

I am looking forward to this opportunity to discuss with you how our team at the infrastructure department is delivering for Canadians.

Mr. Chair, I won't repeat it, but you properly welcomed the three senior officials who are joining me today. If there are specific technical questions, they'll be happy to answer questions from colleagues.

Our government remains committed to building a better future, a more prosperous Canada that is more resilient and more sustainable. That is why we continue to take vigorous climate action to make life more affordable, to grow our economy, and to create good jobs for Canadians.

While we do this, we are increasing our investments in infrastructure to support Canadians. Our objective is to strengthen our economy and communities in order to offer new opportunities to families, young people and seniors.

We will continue to work with all orders of government, as well as indigenous communities and other partners. Those partners are helping us bring to Canadians major bridge projects, for example, zero-emission transit options and affordable housing. We are helping to improve ventilation in public buildings and investing in green and inclusive community buildings. We are investing in sustainable water and wastewater, as well as natural infrastructure.

Today, Mr. Chair, I am here to discuss Infrastructure Canada's 2022-23 main estimates so that we can continue this important work.

Infrastructure Canada is seeking $9.3 billion in the 2022-23 main estimates. The majority of this amount, $6.8 billion, will go toward grants and contributions. The remainder includes $242 million toward operating expenditures, $13.8 million toward capital expenditures, as well as $2.3 billion in total statutory estimates, mainly for the Canada community-building fund, formerly known as the gas tax.

The amount requested in the main estimates this year represents a net increase of $2.5 billion over the 2021-22 main estimates, the bulk of which is for grants and contributions. About 25% of the increase for grants and contributions is for the new programs announced in the Fall Economic Statement 2020 and the 2021 budget, which will be implemented over the coming years.

These programs include a number of key programs, specifically the green and inclusive community buildings program, which I mentioned earlier, the public transit infrastructure fund, the natural infrastructure fund, funding for ventilation under the COVID‑19 resilience stream of the investing in Canada infrastructure program, and an increase to the disaster mitigation and adaptation fund.

The remaining 75% of the grants and contributions increase is for existing programs, such as the public transit infrastructure fund, the investing in Canada infrastructure program and the additional responsibility of Reaching Home, Canada's homelessness strategy. The increase in operating expenditures of $86.3 million includes resources secured to deliver the new programs, as well as the mandated transfer to the department of responsibilities for the homelessness policy directorate. As colleagues would know, this was previously with the Department of Employment and Social Development. These, of course, are under my colleague, the Minister of Housing.

Statutory funding has seen an increase of $8.4 million, related largely to employee benefit plan requirements tied to increases in operating resources.

Finally, capital expenditures represent a decrease in capital funding of $52.4 million compared with the estimates of last year. This is due primarily to the sunsetting of funding in the 2021-22 budget for land purchases related to the Gordie Howe International Bridge and the Samuel De Champlain Bridge corridor project, with the latter, the Champlain Bridge in your great province of Quebec, Mr. Chair, to be completed in late 2022.

The year ahead promises to be a busy one. We think it will be a productive one for the team at Infrastructure Canada. We're excited about the new programming, as I said, that was made available largely in the 2021 budget and the fall economic update of 2020.

I look forward during the questions, Mr. Chair, to speaking with you and our colleagues about our department's work and our commitment to serving Canadians in the best way possible.

Thank you very much for your attention.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you, Mr. Leblanc.

Mr. Muys, the floor is yours, for six minutes.

[Dan Muys, Conservative, Flamborough—Glanbrook, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the minister and the departmental officials for being here today. There is obviously a lot of joy in the occasion, and we share in that, although we do have questions.

Minister, I want to talk a bit further about the Canada Infrastructure Bank. As you know, this committee has recommended its disbandment based on its failures and the expert testimony before this committee.

Related to that, my understanding is that this committee passed a unanimous motion in March 2021. That certainly preceded my time on this committee and your time as minister. The committee asked for details regarding the CEO and director bonuses. I know there was a response provided a few months later that was less than satisfactory. It certainly lacked some accountability.

I want to fast forward a year, now that you're in the chair, and ask whether or not, as the last fiscal year ended, there were any bonuses for CEOs or senior managers at the CIB.

Could you provide any details on that?

[Dominic LeBlanc, Liberal, Beauséjour, NB]

We've obviously taken note of this committee's work with respect to the Infrastructure Bank. We acknowledged that any large new undertaking, such as the Infrastructure Bank, which was created probably five years ago, had some initial growing pains. We believe that the Infrastructure Bank is on a much better footing, perhaps than it was four years ago. I had a chance to meet with the board chair in Vancouver last week.

With respect to executive compensation, that is a very reasonable question. Obviously, the effort in the case of recruiting, for example, the current CEO, with whom I met in Ottawa a couple of months ago.... He was a partner at McKinsey & Company and had worked at Infrastructure Ontario. He had very considerable experience in this area. My understanding is that all of the.... The board, of course, sets the pay and compensation for senior executives. It's entirely consistent with similar organizations in terms of the practice of recruiting talent.

If you have specific questions regarding the bonuses, Mr. Campbell might have that precise information, or I'm happy to forward you what information is publicly available.

[Dan Muys, Conservative, Flamborough—Glanbrook, ON]

Sure, and I think that's we're asking for. It's for publicly available information, as was provided to the committee when the question was last asked. If that can be tabled with the committee, it would be appreciated.

Related to that, what are the metrics associated with those performance bonuses? In my 25 years in the private sector prior to politics, when you have a situation like the Canada Infrastructure Bank that has completed zero projects, I wouldn't have received a performance bonus for zero results.

I don't know if you can comment further on that.

[Dominic LeBlanc, Liberal, Beauséjour, NB]

I don't want to at all diminish our colleague's experience in the private sector, but to say it has completed zero projects is an oversimplification.

In the last 18 months, there has been a very significant increase in the capital funding made available. It's in the tune of $7.2 billion for 28 to 30 projects. It represents a total capital investment of over $20 billion. Again, we're happy to provide the committee—as I know the Infrastructure Bank has made public in the last few weeks—a detailed list of all the projects with which it's involved and the funding it has allocated.

I'm very confident that over the coming months, we'll see the Infrastructure Bank investing in every part of the country in projects that will be very important to Canadians. I'm confident that the last 18 months were different than, perhaps, the previous two years, but I'm very confident that the next 18 months will also show a significant increase in the CIB's activity.

[Dan Muys, Conservative, Flamborough—Glanbrook, ON]

To that, when you were here last at the end of February—three months ago—you admitted that the CIB needed to raise its game in terms of the pace of attracting private sector investment into these projects—which is certainly a raison-d'être of the CIB—and you indicated that you were going to be communicating your expectations to the bank. Three months later, what has been done? Are you satisfied with the progress to date? What can you point to that would be of interest to this committee?

[Dominic LeBlanc, Liberal, Beauséjour, NB]

Mr. Chair, I think those are very reasonable questions.

I certainly share the impatience of members of this committee and of Canadians to see the value that the bank can bring to these kinds of projects. I've had a number of conversations with both the CEO and the board chair. As I say, we met with the board chair. My deputy and I were in British Columbia last week and spent a couple of hours with Ms. Vrooman. I explained to her what I think is an understandable desire on the part of all Canadians to see the bank relevant in big and small projects across the country. They have invested, as I said, $7.2 billion of bank capital, which has attracted, as of last month, $7.6 billion in private and institutional investment.

I certainly take your point that in the initial description of the bank's mandate, there was an expectation or a hope that that private capital portion would be higher. I think we're going to see that grow over time.

[Dan Muys, Conservative, Flamborough—Glanbrook, ON]

Again, last time you were here, there were 33 projects that had been started—and none completed. Where are we at today, three months later? Have we accelerated that or achieved a higher number?

[Dominic LeBlanc, Liberal, Beauséjour, NB]

We are of course accelerating that, but perhaps Mr. Campbell, you have examples of specific projects to use as an example that might help Mr. Muys.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Sorry, Mr. Campbell, but we're unfortunately out of time for that segment. I invite you to submit that information by email following the committee today.

Next we have Mr. Badawey.

The floor is yours. You have six minutes.