I appreciate the intervention. I know that Mr. Lauzon loved it when I intervened because it gave a moment to consider, but I'm really talking about the motion here. How can we move forward with the port study if there are still unanswered questions on BC Ferries, Mr. Chair? That is a direct link. If I end up talking for more than three and a half minutes about a subject without looping back to the motion, I expect Mr. Lauzon to do me the courtesy of letting me know.
We have a situation, Mr. Chair, with which I'm not satisfied. I know that the public isn't satisfied. If you were to ask them if they think that right now we should be giving a billion of their tax dollars through an unaccountable bank, through a government that seems to want to be unaccountable for the decision of the Canada Infrastructure Bank, which is under their direct purview.... They fund the bank. If we had had the minister here for estimates—we had a filibuster by Liberal members for who knows how long, raising all sorts of interesting questions—maybe we would have been able to ask him those questions or perhaps summon my fellow colleague from British Columbia, Minister Gregor Robertson.
That is an aside. The Liberal filibuster seems to have ended, and right now, before proceeding on anything further, I think it's important that Conservatives get their points across about why BC Ferries is still an ongoing issue that has not been addressed, as I will point out, not just by the members of the government but by members of this committee. I have not heard any Liberals say they want to hear more. I asked the parliamentary secretary—or the parliamentary secretary assured me that Chrystia Freeland, when she comes, would answer every single one of my questions. It may not make me happy, but he said I would be satisfied. Mr. Chair, being happy but not satisfied is never the position of the opposition.
Getting back to the motion, because it has been approximately three and a half minutes, to move to five meetings on modernizing Quebec's and Canada's ports to find new markets to reduce reliance on the United States, it's my understanding that there have been three or so reports on ports by this committee in previous parliaments in which the government was given recommendations. I'm not going to speak to those reports. I wasn't there. All I'm going to say, Mr. Chair, is that the fact is, we have not given recommendations to the government for them to ignore as they have the three previous port studies that this committee has done. We do the public a disservice and we do ourselves a disservice if we are not making recommendations on BC Ferries before proceeding to another port study that will be largely ignored by the government.
Why do we know that, Mr. Chair? This committee worked so hard just before we rose for the session. I know Mr. Barsalou-Duval was working overtime. I know our members were working overtime on Bill C-5, and the thing is, the committee ended up passing that legislation with many accountability checks. To my friend from the Bloc, I say congratulations. A number of his amendments were included. Some were supported by us—many, I believe—and I think it's made for better legislation, but we gave that to the ministers who said it was necessary for the good of the country to speed up projects.
The Major Projects Office, Mr. Chair...like the recommendations this committee made on previous port studies, none of them have been designated under Bill C-5 as being in the national interest. It seems to me that we get into such a rush on what the government thinks is important to it, and it doesn't even act on it.
Before going into another study on Canada's ports.... I'd be happy to talk about ports; in Prince Rupert, for example, I have some concerns. That particular port is currently being sued by a local first nation for an exclusivity deal. At some point, we may want to talk about whether ports should be able to simply make those deals and not reveal it, when they are supposed to be doing indigenous consultation. That happened, 100%, under this government's watch. That lawsuit...this first nation.... I'm sure the government will try to ignore that as well.
BC Ferries is still very important to me, Mr. Chair, but there are other issues that could be addressed before we get to it. Let me quickly point out some other issues.
For example, if you're flying in western Canada on one of our airlines, sometimes, through no fault of the staff or pilots, you will suddenly find out that you are grounded or have to circle around, because there are massive shortages with NavCan. Tim Perry, the Air Line Pilots Association president, has publicly said that this is a huge concern and is hurting Canada's international reputation. If someone cannot make their connection in places like YVR, it's a huge problem. I know these labour shortages have even affected the Kelowna riding. It's not my riding, but I'm sure many constituents in my riding have been affected by these labour shortages with NavCan.
Unfortunately, it doesn't seem as though they're accountable to anyone. They're very nice people. They came and talked to me, and they gave assurances that everything is well in hand. I know that there are members from Winnipeg in the Liberal Party. I know this because Mr. Lauzon is on this committee, and Mr. Lamoureux is in the House of Commons, where he is the voice and face of the new Liberal government. He talks endlessly, in fact. I'm intrigued by his holding many constituency meetings at the local McDonald's. I bet you that he's probably heard about this issue, because Winnipeg is one of those affected airports, in addition to Vancouver and, I believe, Calgary.
Calgary is one of those airports. Quite honestly, I have to say that, since 2021 or 2022, there has been a fleet modernization. We've seen Air Canada, WestJet and others modernize their fleets, and this has changed the course. We have members of Parliament from Alberta and Saskatchewan who have to fly to either Calgary or Vancouver just so they can then fly to Ottawa, because of the connections.
When we have NavCan's international reputation causing us issues and when we have members of Parliament interested for their constituents, and pilots.... You wouldn't believe how many members of Parliament have contacted my office who have pilots saying that this is a major issue, yet we hear nothing from the Liberal side on this. We need to bring them in. We need to ask questions of Nav Canada regarding how they're going to rectify these shortages.
I also know that CBSA often has issues with computers being down. I've had people stuck in line, tweeting me with pictures because I'm the opposition's shadow minister for transportation. They're asking me what I'm going to do about it. Well, I haven't had the chance to get the mic to say that these are important issues.
Really, I wanted to finish the study on Driver Inc., so I'm very supportive of having the changes Mr. Barsalou-Duval asked for. Originally, I was the one proposing three meetings. To see three meetings in this motion, Mr. Chair, to specifically deal with the changing context for truck drivers in Canada is absolutely excellent.
It's important in order to understand the approaches. It's vital for the committee's report. Our committee will potentially hear directly from the victims. Their voices and words matter. We must give them time to explain their points of view and to address the challenges. That's really important to me.
It's also important for the different associations. For example, I'm just going to give a quick shout-out to one of the groups that is actually in this, the Caledon Community Road Safety Advocacy Group, because I know they're watching these proceedings. They have been keen to come here. I've seen some of the work they've done on their website and some of the very harrowing tales they have of the changing landscape of truck driving in Canada. I'm very supportive of that particular motion.
The challenge we have here, Mr. Chair, is the way this motion is currently constructed. We can't support it at this time without some major changes. I would start with the major changes needed for BC Ferries. I can't move forward without some sense of closure. I need closure, Mr. Chair, and unfortunately the government has not been able to give me that, because I don't feel that it has been accountable. I don't think that.... I still believe that the loan should be cancelled and that we should be looking to see how we can build these ships here in Canada, rather than allowing them to go to a hybrid shipyard in China and supporting their industry—their war machine—because it's all fundamental. It's all one thing to them.
Here in Canada, we have the very successful national shipbuilding strategy. I know that the government celebrated that and said all the wonderful things it does for the economy. Places like Halifax, with the Irving shipyard, have benefited very much. There is Seaspan, a great company that is producing fantastic Coast Guard vessels—the science vessels—as well as icebreakers, which do not use only Canadian steel, but use some.
Much of the steel, Mr. Chair, for icebreakers—I'm not sure if you're aware of this—actually comes from Finland, where Davie shipyard is a part owner. One of the things that I think we should have a real conversation about if we're going to do “made in Canada” is seeing whether we can import some of that specialty here in Canada, because when I last checked, Mr. Chair, we have some excellent steel companies.
These are all issues right now that I'm afraid the Government of Canada is not addressing.
We could consider, as I said, supporting the elements that Mr. Barsalou-Duval has obviously negotiated with the government members, because essentially it seems that this motion that was amended originated from the Liberal Party. I guess if Mr. Greaves were present, I could actually say that it appears there is a coalition between the Liberals and the Bloc. Actually, Mr. Lauzon said earlier that there was a coalition between the Conservatives and the Bloc, but that would be a silly thing to say. Ultimately, as you know, those in the Bloc have their ideas about what is good for their province, and we Conservatives have our own ideas. Sometimes the two travel the same way, and obviously, sometimes the Liberal Party seems to want to support and be supported by the Bloc, at least in the current way that this motion was amended.
I think it's a very silly thing for anyone to say—and I know that Mr. Greaves tried to make a point of this on Twitter—that it was really.... You wouldn't believe this, Mr. Chair. He actually did a report to his constituents, with a lovely background, because Victoria is beautiful. The coastline is very beautiful.