Evidence of meeting #29 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 projects.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Schiefke
I apologize again, Mr. Lawrence, but I did not recognize Mr. Iacono.
Mr. Iacono, you have the floor for a point of order.
Liberal
Angelo Iacono Liberal Alfred-Pellan, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'm listening to the entire discussion in French. You can imagine the interpretation, and I'm a little confused. We're discussing a very important topic that interests me a great deal, but I'd like to be able to follow. Interpretation is really not easy. Therefore, we should think about the interpreters who have to interpret what is being said into English. When people are talking over each other, it makes the interpretation very difficult to understand.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Schiefke
Thank you, Mr. Iacono.
Mr. Iacono brought up a point similar to Mr. d'Entremont's. It emphasizes the importance of allowing questions to be answered without interrupting each other, colleagues. It's for the benefit of our interpreters, who always do a phenomenal job. We want to support them in that.
Mr. Albas, you also had a point of order, sir.
Conservative
Dan Albas Conservative Okanagan Lake West—South Kelowna, BC
It's not just the interpreters who are struggling, Mr. Chair. With the non-answers we're getting, Orwell is spinning in his grave.
Thank you.
Liberal
Liberal
Mike Kelloway Liberal Sydney—Glace Bay, NS
Mr. Chair, this is obviously very serious. This is not a vaudeville act or amateur hour at the comedy show. Can we allow the witnesses to speak and to answer the question?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Schiefke
Thank you very much, Mr. Kelloway.
It is very important, colleagues. It's also very important that I turn the floor back over to Mr. Lawrence, because he did have a line of questioning he wanted to finish. I believe he has two minutes and 18 seconds to do that.
Sir, the floor is yours.
Conservative
Philip Lawrence Conservative Northumberland—Clarke, ON
Thank you very much.
The reality is that there is not commercial sensitivity here. The reality is that there are political sensitivities. By giving forgiveness or giving a windfall to Liberal insiders, the reality is that the revenue won't be met. What will happen is that the loan won't be paid out.
In the meantime, Mr. Roscoe beside you and many of the Liberal-connected insiders will receive, I don't know, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars—if you'd like to share that with me, that would be great—at the cost of Canadian taxpayers. Once again, this is an example of Liberals taking money from taxpayers and helping themselves.
Isn't that the actual case, Mr. Rodgers?
Managing Director, Slate Asset Management
Could you kindly clarify the question? I didn't catch what you were asking.
Conservative
Philip Lawrence Conservative Northumberland—Clarke, ON
Mr. Rodgers, why don't you just clear the air right now, if everything is above board, and share with us the repayment terms?
Managing Director, Slate Asset Management
The financing terms are confidential to protect proprietary and commercially sensitive information.
Conservative
Managing Director, Slate Asset Management
It's bound by certain confidentiality provisions across—
Conservative
Conservative
Philip Lawrence Conservative Northumberland—Clarke, ON
You have the ability to waive that. Why don't you just come out right now and clear the air?
Managing Director, Slate Asset Management
I do not have the ability to unilaterally waive....
Pardon me?
Conservative
Philip Lawrence Conservative Northumberland—Clarke, ON
You have indemnity at committee. Why don't you just go ahead and tell us what those payment terms are?
Managing Director, Slate Asset Management
The terms of the CIB loan and other financing as part of the Mersey River wind project are confidential. We do not disclose confidential private information publicly.
Conservative
Philip Lawrence Conservative Northumberland—Clarke, ON
Who gave you that money? The Canadian taxpayers did. Don't you think the taxpayers have a right to know how they're being fleeced?
Managing Director, Slate Asset Management
The Canada Infrastructure Bank contains certain review rights over the project proceeds, the progress of construction and the appropriate safeguards that would be in place for any project-based financing of this nature.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Schiefke
Thank you very much, Mr. Lawrence, and thank you, Mr. Rodgers.
Finally for today, we'll turn the floor over to Ms. Fancy.
You have five minutes, please.
Liberal
Jessica Fancy-Landry Liberal South Shore—St. Margarets, NS
Thank you very much.
My colleague from across the way just talked about how taxpayers are paying for this. Yes, they are, and we have to remember that over 50,000 Nova Scotians signed up for this project.
Let's give a couple of highlights here, because I don't think we're looking at how this project meets very specific criteria in what they had to do. We have all three levels of government. We have indigenous partnerships. We have a provincial Conservative premier supporting this project. We have unanimous community consultations in Queens County. It takes away a monopoly from 1992, which was over 30 years ago. We got the 30,000 they needed. We had 50,000 people sign up for this project.
I think we believe in Nova Scotians. We believe in ingenuity. We believe in innovation. We are future-proofing our province here with projects like these.
To end this, Mr. Roscoe, I'd like you to tell us this: What is your long-term vision for this project and future projects for Nova Scotia?
Chief Executive Officer, Roswall Development Inc.
The member is accurate in that this is the first project of what we hope will be many. Our licence is not restricted to the energy from one project. We expect that our licence will enable projects throughout Nova Scotia to be developed, and not just wind, but solar and battery projects as well, as we grow.
One of the main reasons we focused on the renewable-to-retail program was that previous procurements for renewable energy are few and far between. There was a period of almost 10 years where we didn't install any wind turbines in Nova Scotia. Our licence will allow for more consistent and frequent development of wind farms. Our goal is to have new energy generation coming online each year so that new customers can continue to switch over to renewable energy.
Moving forward, the ability to have a fully renewable energy-based electricity system is something that is going to be in demand throughout the world as countries and regions transition away from fossil fuels. We don't have to look far into the news these days to see the strain on inflation and on economies with increasing fossil fuel prices. Every country in the world has renewable resources that it can develop, and the knowledge and skills associated with generating and delivering renewable energy, balancing renewable energy and aligning renewable energy with the needs of customers are going to be in demand throughout the world.
One of the founding prospects of Roswall is to continue not only to push for more renewable energy in Nova Scotia, but to export our experience to places around the world that are just beginning their journey away from fossil fuels.