Transport Committee on April 15th, 2026

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

I think it's pretty clear. We're asking you to investigate a conflict of interest that allegedly took place in your office when a floor-crossing member of Parliament was called the day after she crossed and was offered preferential treatment so that she could get money from the government.

It seems to me that's a pretty serious thing that would be worth looking into and reassuring everybody about. Wouldn't you agree?

[Gregor Robertson, Liberal, Vancouver Fraserview—South Burnaby, BC]

I don't know why there is a conflict of interest related to that. My office reaches out to MPs all over the country on a regular basis.

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

I have never received such a call at my office, Minister. However, if you want to call me, I'll pick up.

I can't believe what I'm hearing.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you, Mr. Barsalou‑Duval.

Minister, Deputy Minister, I want to thank you both for appearing before us today and sharing your testimony with us.

Colleagues, I'm going to suspend for a couple of minutes to allow the clerk to transition to our next round of witnesses.

This meeting is suspended to the call of the chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

I call this meeting back to order.

Colleagues, appearing before us for the second half of today's meeting are witnesses from Roswall Development Inc.

Daniel Roscoe is the chief executive officer.

David Howell, chief financial officer, is joining us by video conference.

Michel Samson, board chair, is appearing by video conference.

Mitchell Brison and Edgar Samson, directors on the board, are with us by video conference.

Welcome to all of you.

We also have with us, from Slate Asset Management, Jeff Rodgers, managing director.

Thank you for taking the time to appear before us today.

We'll begin with opening remarks, and for that I'll turn the floor over to you, Mr. Roscoe.

You have five minutes. Please go ahead.

[Daniel Roscoe, Chief Executive Officer, Roswall Development Inc.]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

My name is Daniel Roscoe. I'm a professional engineer with 20 years of experience working on renewable energy projects. Roswall Development Inc. was founded in 2018 to continue work many of us have been doing to further renewable energy development in Nova Scotia and export the experiences we have gained in Nova Scotia internationally.

In 2020, we started to consider working with the renewable-to-retail program under Nova Scotia's Electricity Act. Further to that effort, we applied to the utility and review board and were granted the province's first retail electricity licence in 2021.

We created a new subsidiary, Renewall Energy Inc., to hold the licence and provide an alternative to Nova Scotia Power, which currently holds a monopoly on retail electricity supply. Around the same time, we began development work for the Mersey River wind farm to be the first source of generation for our licence.

The Mersey River wind farm is located on roughly 20,000 acres of provincial Crown land in Queens County, on Nova Scotia's south shore. The land was previously owned by Bowater Mersey, a local mill that shut down in 2006; the land was purchased by the province at that time. It has been actively used for commercial forestry for over 100 years. It's adjacent to the Mersey River hydro system and will connect to the grid at the same substation. In short, it is a very well-suited location for a wind farm.

To further the development of Mersey, in 2022 Roswall undertook a capital raise. As part of that raise, we entered into a framework agreement with Slate Asset Management, which invested in Roswall and undertook to invest in and finance the wind projects associated with our renewable-to-retail licence. The funds raised in 2022 allowed Roswall to accomplish typical tasks associated with getting a wind project ready to finance, such as environmental studies, first nations engagement, interconnection, wind resource analysis, municipal and other permitting, and land control.

Mersey River Wind received its approval of environmental assessment in March 2023 and municipal permitting in 2024, with unanimous approval from the council, and it finalized its interconnection agreements in 2025.

While Roswall was developing Mersey, Slate was focused on the arranging of financing for Mersey to meet the obligations of our framework agreement. The financing of a wind farm generally takes place once all permitting and requirements are in place, but prior to construction and the ordering of equipment. Jeff Rodgers will provide more detail on that process.

At the same time as Mersey was being developed, Renewall Energy was also being established. Once the retail licence was secured, effort was needed to develop business models and contracting documents, engage customers and take on the significant regulatory engagement required to solidify the process of opening up Nova Scotia's electricity market to competition.

Mersey is not just another wind farm. It provides Nova Scotians with a choice of who they purchase electricity from for the first time. This is in line with the Nova Scotia Energy Reform Act of 2024, recent legislation enacted by Nova Scotia's Progressive Conservative government to, in part, enact independent operation of our transmission system and increase competition in the electricity marketplace. In order for Renewall to provide real competition to the market, it has to be competitive on price. What is important for that competition is to ensure that projects associated with our renewable-to-retail model are afforded the same opportunities as projects associated with Nova Scotia Power.

As you heard Ehren Cory tell you in March, the CIB has provided eight other loans to energy projects in Nova Scotia, including six other wind projects.

In addition to achieving provincial environmental goals and policy objectives, Renewall is an important tool to enable the province of Nova Scotia to reduce its dependence on imported energy. Unlike most of the rest of Canada, Nova Scotia imports the vast majority of its energy, including over $4 billion a year in imported fossil fuels. Producing our own energy, therefore, provides significant economic development potential for Nova Scotia.

The Mersey River wind farm will generate over $1 million in annual municipal tax revenue and support over 250 jobs during construction. Renewall will help provide long-term rate stability for Nova Scotia businesses, public entities and homeowners, and will also help attract new businesses to N.S. who see clean energy as a cornerstone of future profitability.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you, Mr. Roscoe.

Next, I'll turn it over to Mr. Rodgers.

Mr. Rodgers, the floor is yours. You have five minutes, sir.

[Jeff Rodgers, Managing Director, Slate Asset Management]

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today.

My name is Jeff Rodgers. I'm a managing director of Slate Asset Management. I'm here to answer your questions about Slate's role in securing financing for the Mersey River wind project.

Slate is an investor and asset manager focused on essential real estate and infrastructure, founded over 20 years ago and headquartered in Toronto. Over the past two decades, we have grown to become a leading global investor in essential real estate and infrastructure, serving institutional investors including Canadian pension funds and endowments.

I joined Slate in 2022 and lead the firm's infrastructure investment strategy. By way of background, I have two decades of experience in finance, including the last 15 years dedicated to infrastructure investment.

As a Canadian firm, Slate is focused on investing in the essential real assets that serve communities and support economic growth across this country and beyond. We are owners and operators with deep expertise across the risk spectrum of real estate and infrastructure. Slate's strategy targets companies and projects that deliver essential infrastructure, and our core investment sectors include energy transition and distributed power, essential supply chain logistics, digital and communications infrastructure, district energy and building systems.

Our approach to the infrastructure market is to establish partnerships with proven developers and operators of critical infrastructure with local knowledge who seek institutional capital partners to invest in projects being developed, built or acquired. To these partnerships we bring not only capital but also expertise in financing, structuring and asset management.

In 2022, Slate invested in Roswall Development, a Halifax-based renewable energy company with extensive experience in Nova Scotia's energy sector. Roswall has successfully developed, built and operated wind and solar projects across the east coast. As a major consideration for this investment, Slate secured the rights to invest in and finance the wind projects being developed by Roswall.

Mersey River wind is one such project, and it fits squarely within our investment strategy. It's a 148.5-megawatt wind farm that will provide clean, renewable power to Nova Scotia, and it is also the first project to be delivered under the province's renewable-to-retail program. Renewall, powered by Mersey, will be the first to sell renewable power directly to end customers in Nova Scotia, introducing customer choice and competition to the market.

As a Canadian-headquartered asset manager, we are committed to investing in modern, long-term infrastructure solutions like Mersey that will contribute to Canada's future. Our role in this partnership is as the institutional capital partner and financing lead. We structured the project financing, including securing the loan from the Canada Infrastructure Bank. This is consistent with our approach across our infrastructure portfolio in North America and Europe, where we leverage our financing expertise to support critical infrastructure development by our partners.

Slate's involvement in the Mersey River wind project is straightforward: We are a Canadian institutional investor partnering with an experienced Nova Scotia developer to finance, invest in and build essential infrastructure that will serve Nova Scotians for generations.

We are proud to support this innovative project and Nova Scotia's energy transition. The project will deliver clean power, create local jobs during construction and operation, and provide Nova Scotians with greater choice in their electricity supply.

I'm happy to answer questions the committee may have about Slate's role in this project.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much, Mr. Rodgers.

We'll begin our line of questioning today with Dr. Lewis.

Dr. Lewis, the floor is yours. You have six minutes, please.

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

Thank you.

Thank you to the witnesses for attending.

We know that a project worth more than $200 million was backed by the government for your private energy project, and it was extended at below-market, taxpayer-funded rates. This is raising some serious concerns and questions about whether the project is financially viable without subsidies and whether there were political connections that played a role in the approval process.

When public funds are at stake, it's natural for Canadians to have a right to know who is behind the project and whether there were political connections that played into how the funds were advanced and approved. We've heard from members today. We've heard from you, Mr. Roscoe, that this was a completely legitimate transaction.

What I would like to hear from you now, Mr. Roscoe, is that you have family that's connected to former senior Liberal figures. Is that correct?

[Daniel Roscoe]

Yes. My father-in-law is a former member of Parliament.

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

Can you also confirm whether Mr. Samson previously served as a member of the legislative assembly and interim leader for the Nova Scotia Liberal Party?

[Daniel Roscoe]

Yes. I believe that is accurate.

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

Can you also confirm that Mr. Brison is the brother of a former federal Liberal cabinet minister and adviser to Mark Carney?

[Daniel Roscoe]

Yes. That is accurate.

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

Mr. Roscoe, is there any other political connection that hasn't been disclosed to this committee that I haven't raised today?

[Daniel Roscoe]

No, not that I'm aware of.

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

Mr. Samson was involved in matters related to the Liberal Arctic surf clam quota allocation. It was later found through the Ethics Commissioner to have violated federal ethics rules with Minister Dominic LeBlanc.

Is that correct? Are you aware of that?

[Daniel Roscoe]

I'm generally aware of that, but I'm not familiar with the details.

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

Okay. You're aware that it did happen. Is that correct?

[Daniel Roscoe]

Yes.

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

Mr. Roscoe, did the company seek any private financing—yes or no?

[Daniel Roscoe]

The answer to that question would be yes. As we indicated earlier, when Roswall undertook a capital raise, on the money that Roswall raised to facilitate the development of the Mersey River wind farm and engage Slate Asset Management to arrange financing for the projects, all of the capital raised by Roswall at that time, along with Slate, was from private sources.

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

Why didn't you continue with private funding?

[Daniel Roscoe]

As part of the framework agreement, which we have previously talked about, the role of Slate Asset Management was to arrange the financing for the Mersey River wind farm.

It would be more appropriate for Jeff to tell you about the details of who they engaged and the process they went through as part of that.