Evidence of meeting #23 for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was procurement.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Gary Anandasangaree Liberal Scarborough—Guildwood—Rouge Park, ON
The procurement itself was undertaken by British Columbia.
Conservative
Aaron Gunn Conservative North Island—Powell River, BC
Do you regret that federal tax money was used to bankroll the purchase through the Infrastructure Bank?
Liberal
Gary Anandasangaree Liberal Scarborough—Guildwood—Rouge Park, ON
The Government of British Columbia made a decision on this procurement. The funding did go from the Canada Infrastructure Bank. However, the decision itself is on the Government of British Columbia.
Conservative
Aaron Gunn Conservative North Island—Powell River, BC
That's fair enough. Are you concerned, as the Minister of Public Safety, that we are subsidizing the shipbuilding infrastructure of an adversarial nation?
Liberal
Gary Anandasangaree Liberal Scarborough—Guildwood—Rouge Park, ON
Our desire and the Prime Minister's desire—we made it very clear as a government—is for procurement to be done in Canada. We want to have Canadian companies that can compete for these very important infrastructure purchases. That is precisely what we're doing with our defence infrastructure—
Conservative
Aaron Gunn Conservative North Island—Powell River, BC
Would you have preferred it if those ships were built here in Canada?
Conservative
Liberal
Gary Anandasangaree Liberal Scarborough—Guildwood—Rouge Park, ON
If I may, I would say that every Canadian would say that we would prefer to have our infrastructure dollars spent in Canada. That is not always the reality. I would suggest that in this particular case, the procurement was done by the Government of British Columbia. I'm going to give them the benefit...by saying it was done in an open, transparent and fair manner. They have chosen this particular vendor.
Conservative
Aaron Gunn Conservative North Island—Powell River, BC
This is just so we're on the same page. This is an important procurement. Obviously, there are public safety and security concerns for Canadians.
Are we on the same page that China is a communist country?
Conservative
Aaron Gunn Conservative North Island—Powell River, BC
Okay. That's perfect.
Do you agree that President Xi is a dictator?
Liberal
Gary Anandasangaree Liberal Scarborough—Guildwood—Rouge Park, ON
I could suggest that we go around the world and put tags on individual leaders—
Liberal
Gary Anandasangaree Liberal Scarborough—Guildwood—Rouge Park, ON
That is not what I'm here to do. I'm here to advise this committee that the process by which we undertake these procurements, in this particular case by the Government of British Columbia—
Conservative
Liberal
Gary Anandasangaree Liberal Scarborough—Guildwood—Rouge Park, ON
We talked about it before you came here, Mr. Gunn.
Conservative
Liberal
Gary Anandasangaree Liberal Scarborough—Guildwood—Rouge Park, ON
You may want to review the transcript, because—
Conservative
Aaron Gunn Conservative North Island—Powell River, BC
I found it hard to believe. I was told we hadn't done it. Is that true?
Liberal
Gary Anandasangaree Liberal Scarborough—Guildwood—Rouge Park, ON
I can ask Mr. Bilodeau to answer that question. We've already answered that, but if you want it to be repeated, of course, we can do that.
Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, National and Cybersecurity Branch, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
There was no security review done for the ferries that B.C. purchased. When we got involved in late April, early May, the decision to purchase the ferries had already been made.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Schiefke
Thank you very much, Mr. Gunn.
Thank you, Mr. Bilodeau.
Next we'll go to Mr. Kelloway.
The floor is yours. You have five minutes, sir.
February 25th, 2026 / 5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Mike Kelloway Liberal Sydney—Glace Bay, NS
Thanks very much, Mr. Chair.
Minister, it's great to see you here.
Ms. Lloyd and Mr. Bilodeau, thank you for being here.
I have a couple of questions, but I'll start with Ms. Lloyd.
Does the procurement of these vessels pose a national security threat to Canada? I just want to be clear on the answer—yes or no.
From your perspective, your expertise and where you work—Mr. Bilodeau, I'll ask you to chime in as well—to be clear with Canadians.... From your perspective, your intelligence and your work, can you talk to us about that? Does it pose a threat to Canadian citizens, yes or no?
Deputy Director, Canadian Security Intelligence Service
Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the question and the opportunity to give a clearer response.
Not having reviewed the procurement and not being in a position to understand the technologies that will be on the actual vessels, because that has not been our role so far, my current understanding is that there are no national security threats that would raise concern. These are not connected vessels, and they do not pose the types of things we would be concerned about in terms of data sovereignty, for example, or private information that could be collected on Canadian citizens through the use of those ferries. At this point, there is nothing to flag to the committee.