Transport Committee on April 13th, 2026

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Okanagan Lake West—South Kelowna, BC]

Thank you, sir.

I want to impress upon the government members who are here today that when someone is asking for the government to just do its job so they can expand their operations to the benefit of the region, that's a great candidate to start with.

Mr. Chair, I have given notice of a motion that I was hoping we could quickly slip in with regard to B'nai Brith and their request to appear. I want to make sure with the clerk that it's eligible. I sent it in on Friday, on the 10th, so it should be eligible. Yes, okay. I was just making sure.

I move:

That, in relation to the motion adopted by the committee on December 11, 2025, the committee invite representatives from B'nai Brith to testify as part of the committee's study on the challenges facing Canadian airports.

I hope this is a common-sense thing. They're actually the ones who wrote to us originally, saying this was an important thing, so we should consider having them.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Do we want to discuss that now?

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Okanagan Lake West—South Kelowna, BC]

I'm looking for unanimous consent.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Is this something we'd like to give unanimous consent to, or is this something we'd like to discuss further, colleagues? It's really up to the will of the committee.

Mr. Lauzon, you have the floor.

[Stéphane Lauzon, Liberal, Argenteuil—La Petite-Nation, QC]

That was quick. I would like to have the text of the motion in French and I would like us to discuss it further.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Okanagan Lake West—South Kelowna, BC]

Mr. Chair—

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Go ahead, Mr. Albas.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Okanagan Lake West—South Kelowna, BC]

I sent the text of the motion to the clerk.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Give me one second, Mr. Albas.

Mr. Lauzon, you have the floor.

[Stéphane Lauzon, Liberal, Argenteuil—La Petite-Nation, QC]

What I said was that we had received the motion that was just moved. I would like to discuss it with my team so that we can determine the direction we're going to take. We didn't know it might be moved today.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Colleagues, given that there's only five minutes left, if it is something easy, can we do it in Wednesday's meeting? It might be something that can be taken care of in Wednesday's meeting.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Okanagan Lake West—South Kelowna, BC]

I figured this would be a simple one. If members need more time, I guess that's what we'll do.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Mr. Albas, we'll make note that this may be something you bring up on Wednesday. Hopefully we'll be able to rectify it then and take care of it.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Okanagan Lake West—South Kelowna, BC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much, Mr. Albas.

Mr. Lauzon, you have the floor for five minutes.

[Stéphane Lauzon, Liberal, Argenteuil—La Petite-Nation, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the witnesses for being here.

Ms. Campbell, Sydney Harbour has benefited from historic federal investments, including for the dredging of the harbour. However, based on what you've told us, it's at a turning point.

Right now, whether in terms of infrastructure or transitional funding, what type of federal support or regulatory measure would be the most instrumental in helping you more? How could we do better to help you more? What recommendations could the committee make to that effect?

[Lorna Campbell]

The core issue we are dealing with is a fragmented governance structure and the need for local authority to advance the interests of the harbour users, the existing terminal operators, and developers. I see personally very often in meetings with key stakeholders that there is great opportunity for investment and for diversifying the services within the port. What we are looking to do is establish the foundation or basis for supporting all the existing terminal users.

As you can appreciate, in terms of the individual landowners, everything has been divested. We have a fragmented group of people. We have a grassroots.... We have a great partnership with the existing port users to advance opportunities and requirements for the benefit of all users.

At the port corporation, we are very focused on marine services and enhancing what is needed for ships coming in and out of the port. We have aging infrastructure. I've already indicated that we have a very robust cruise industry at the terminal we operate, but we have legacy federal infrastructure that is essentially condemned. Without transitional funding, we are at risk in the ongoing operations to service the cruise industry. That would be the self-dock facility on our terminal site. It's an estimated cost of $10 million.

We have additional thoughts, depending on the responsibilities that are downloaded to us under a management agreement, if we get there, with Transport Canada. The transitional funding, which is in the tens of millions, would be very beneficial to us, but that does not speak to the upgrades to the rail alignment. The most comprehensive capital cost estimate I saw, which was from 2017, was just north of $100 million for those repairs. We have an existing rail alignment that's not been in use, but we have a rail alignment that connects our port to inland.

I don't know if you appreciate the history of Cape Breton with our steel and coal exports. It was a very robust industry all centred around our harbour. With the decline and lack of those industries, probably our biggest asset now is the available land surrounding the port. We're an underutilized harbour that has significant opportunity to complement the other ports and take some pressures off where it makes sense. We see rail as a key aspect of that.

Investment-wise, we need transitional funding and access to harbour dues that are currently remitted to Ottawa. The CPAs and even the fully divested smaller ports maintain the revenue generated by the transiting vessels for reinvestment back into the port. We don't have that opportunity in Sydney, and we would like that opportunity.

[Stéphane Lauzon, Liberal, Argenteuil—La Petite-Nation, QC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you, Mr. Lauzon.

It goes quickly, I know.

Mr. Grech and Ms. Campbell, I want to thank you both for appearing before us today and for contributing to this very important study.

With that, colleagues, the meeting is adjourned. I look forward to seeing you all on Wednesday.