Transport Committee on April 15th, 2026

[Leslyn Lewis, Conservative, Haldimand—Norfolk, ON]

Do you know if any of the officers or directors were asked to give a personal guarantee, or have they given a personal guarantee, for the loan?

[Daniel Roscoe]

No one from Roswall was involved in the financing of the Mersey River wind farm. At no point did any of our directors or staff engage with the Canada Infrastructure Bank in arranging that. That would include, to your question, Dr. Lewis, that at no point did anyone provide any personal guarantees—

[Leslyn Lewis, Conservative, Haldimand—Norfolk, ON]

Taxpayers bear the entire risk of this project, then. No officer or director of the corporation is bearing that risk.

At this time, I think I'm finished with my questions. I'm going to ask for some indulgence from the chair.

Given everything we've heard in this investigation, I'd like to give notice of a motion for the production of documents. I have sent it to the clerk in both official languages. The motion I'm putting on notice is for transparency and accountability for the $206-million taxpayer-backed financing. Canadians deserve to know how the project was approved, what risks were taken and whether public money replaced the private investment. The motion asks the committee to issue an order to the Canada Infrastructure Bank to produce all unredacted records of communications with ministers and MPs, internal due diligence, and full loan terms, including interest rates and guarantees. We are requesting that Roswall Development provide their communications with the government and the bank and all records showing the private financing they pursued before turning to taxpayers.

If private capital wouldn't take this on, Canadians deserve to know why. Since there is a taxpayer-funded project, it is incumbent on the CIB and Roswall Development to be transparent.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much, Dr. Lewis. Notice has been given; it is so noted.

We'll now turn to our next speaker.

Ms. Fancy, you have six minutes, please.

[Jessica Fancy-Landry, Liberal, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

Thank you very much.

I want to welcome all of the witnesses here today.

As we know, this project is being conducted in my riding. Sometimes we're getting caught up within this whole mess as though this is just happening. We're forgetting this has been a four-year-long, if not, as Mr. Roscoe mentioned earlier, a 10-year-long project. I would like to even roll that back even more.

During our announcement, Mr. Roscoe, you mentioned in the announcement that it has been a lifelong dream of yours to have some type of project like this. You referenced way back to grade eight and writing your first essay in regard to how important this is for our province. I wanted to mention that today, because we keep thinking this has just been a done deal within the last six months or the last couple of months, and it hasn't. This has been a lifelong dream of yours, hasn't it, Mr. Roscoe?

[Daniel Roscoe]

Yes, since junior high I have been quite passionate about alternatives for fossil fuels and the importance of renewable energy for Nova Scotia in particular.

[Jessica Fancy-Landry, Liberal, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

I think, as a former educator, I probably would have given you an A+ on that essay.

In regard to some of the people who are signed up for our project, the criterion was that you needed 35,000. We ended up having over 50,000 people in Nova Scotia—businesses, municipalities and ratepayers—sign up for this project, more than we had even expected. Since this has become newsworthy, I'm getting calls to my office and constituency office daily from people asking how they can sign up for this. For all of us here today, this is how important this type of project is to Nova Scotians. We also have to remember that all three levels of government are involved in this project, whether it's the province helping with the Crown land, whether it's us, as the federal government, or whether it's the local municipality. Projects like this don't come along very often. It's the support we need to give both our proponents but also the people in our constituencies. Some do talk to that.

I also wanted to mention the Town of Bridgewater. They put out an energy poverty report saying that in Nova Scotia people currently pay $4,000 a year for their electricity. I'm looking at that with 94,000 constituents in South Shore—St. Margarets. That's $376 million that is potentially leaving my riding, and we want that money back in our riding. We want those jobs, especially when we're a little rural riding.

Mr. Roscoe, I would like to ask you, how have the local communities been engaged throughout the development process, and how is that contributing as this project progresses?

[Daniel Roscoe]

We've been very pleased and excited with the amount of interest that has been generated for our alternative electricity supply in Nova Scotia. As some of you may be aware, we have only had one option for electricity in Nova Scotia for I think 30 years or so now. As a result, there's a lot of interest in having alternatives, both cleaner alternatives, alternatives that don't involve fossil fuels and primarily coal generation, which is the major source, and to have local and cost-stable solutions, solutions people can count on the price of in the future.

As the member noted, we have had significant interest from all sorts of different industries. That includes municipalities that are near the Mersey River wind farm, including the region of Queens, the Town of Bridgewater and the City of Halifax. We have had thousands of individuals sign up to buy power from us and a range of over 30 commercial entities throughout the province, in every federal riding in Nova Scotia.

We're very pleased with the uptake and the level of interest. The energy sector in Nova Scotia is quite busy. There's a lot going on, as noted previously, with other projects, so it hasn't always been easy for us to distinguish ourselves from the other work that's going on in Nova Scotia for both electricity and other energy projects. To that end, we are very pleased to have been able to announce that the financing of the project has been arranged. That has played a significant role in increasing the level of interest in our retail electricity offering.

[Jessica Fancy-Landry, Liberal, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

Thank you very much, Mr. Roscoe.

I'd also like to ask a question, because initially a lot of our consultations were rolling back four years ago, before my time as a new member of Parliament. Was my predecessor, Mr. Perkins, involved in the community consultations when this began, yes or no?

[Daniel Roscoe]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Yes. We met with Mr. Perkins on multiple occasions, to brief him and his staff about the Mersey River wind farm.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much, Ms. Fancy. I know it goes quickly.

Thank you, Mr. Roscoe.

Mr. Barsalou‑Duval, now over to you for six minutes.

[Xavier Barsalou-Duval, Bloc, Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Welcome to the witnesses.

At our last meeting on this topic, we had the opportunity to welcome the president of the Canada Infrastructure Bank, Ehren Cory.

In his testimony, as in the letter he sent to the committee, he mentions that the project for which you obtained $200 million from the Canada Infrastructure Bank entailed specific financial and structural risks. He also mentions that, given these risks, traditional private lenders were unwilling to provide the necessary funding on their own.

Can you confirm that private lenders would have refused to fund your project and that, in normal circumstances, your project would not have happened?

[Jeff Rodgers]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

If I understand the question properly, the Canada Infrastructure Bank provided project-based financing for a wind project that would be typical of this nature. The innovation tied to the renewable-to-retail program, I believe, is what the—

[Xavier Barsalou-Duval, Bloc, Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, QC]

My question was, is it true that the private sector refused to fund your project?

[Jeff Rodgers]

I'm sorry, Mr. Chair. It didn't translate for me.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Okay.

Give me one second, folks. We're going to stop the time.

Mr. Barsalou‑Duval, we stopped the clock at four and a half minutes. We just want to make sure the interpretation is working properly.

Is it working now?

Can you let me know, Mr. Rodgers, if you're getting the translation when I'm speaking in French?

I'll just do a test to make sure the interpretation is working properly.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Just to confirm, is it the question as a whole that you didn't receive from Mr. Barsalou-Duval?

[Jeff Rodgers]

It was his follow-up.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

It was the follow-up.

The floor is yours, Mr. Barsalou‑Duval.

You can repeat your question. I'll restart the clock after that.

[Xavier Barsalou-Duval, Bloc, Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, QC]

Okay.

My question was, is it true that the private sector refused to fund your project?

[Jeff Rodgers]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The development process for the Mersey River wind project was a fairly lengthy one, and we investigated several options in terms of financing for a project of this nature. That's typical for any infrastructure project at the development stage, where you would exhaust all potential options for financing. We evaluated—

[Xavier Barsalou-Duval, Bloc, Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, QC]

If I understand correctly, the Canada Infrastructure Bank was your last resort, because the private sector refused to fund your project. Is that correct?

[Jeff Rodgers]

I'm sorry. Can you please repeat the question?

[Xavier Barsalou-Duval, Bloc, Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, QC]

I've actually been asking you the same question from the start.

Did the private sector refuse to fund your project, yes or no?

I've been asking you the same question for three or four minutes.

[Jeff Rodgers]

Mr. Chair, we went through an extensive process to raise private sector financing. I can confirm the—