Transport Committee on April 15th, 2026

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

In order to attract support for a project—I speak of this going back to my time serving at the local level on the west coast—it's important to do engagement and outreach in the community. Elected officials in the community are important to meet with in order to build those connections and make sure they understand the projects being brought forward.

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

That's exactly it: They meet with them to get support from the government and local elected officials for their project. There is an interest in meeting with them; they do it to get support. It can't hurt their chances of getting a project.

You're still telling us that the Infrastructure Bank makes its decisions at arm's length from the government. Earlier, one of my colleagues pointed out that all the bank's decisions go through your office. Therefore, you definitely have a role to play in those decisions, because your office reviews them, on the one hand. On the other, when the announcement was made on February 26, you were even there physically.

It's nothing political, but politics is involved. Explain that to me.

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

I do not make investment decisions related to the Canada Infrastructure Bank. It operates independently from the federal government in its day-to-day operations and its investment decisions. I was present at the announcement because this is an important project for Canada and its critical infrastructure.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much, Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Barsalou‑Duval.

Next, we'll turn the floor over to Mr. Lawrence.

You have five minutes, sir.

[Philip Lawrence, Conservative, Northumberland—Clarke, ON]

Welcome, Minister.

Are you not troubled at all by the fact that four of the seven members of Roswall Development, which received $206 million from the CIB, were connected Liberal insiders? One was a brother, one was a brother-in-law and one was a former Liberal leader. Doesn't that bother you at all?

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

To the member, through the chair, I have full confidence in the Canada Infrastructure Bank. They do their work, they do their due diligence and they negotiate the terms. In this case, it's a loan to a private investor to invest in energy infrastructure for Nova Scotia. It was supported by the Conservative government in Nova Scotia, so I don't think there is anything partisan about this. I think it's a very important infrastructure deal. It was negotiated on good terms with a private proponent.

[Philip Lawrence, Conservative, Northumberland—Clarke, ON]

Who funds the Infrastructure Bank?

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

The Government of Canada provides the capital for the Infrastructure Bank—

[Philip Lawrence, Conservative, Northumberland—Clarke, ON]

I think you are incorrect there. It is Canadian citizens.

You said earlier that there is a legal requirement for non-disclosure. You are aware that you guys are the head of government, that you can pass any law you want, and that Parliament can also demand any information it wants. When you said it was not the committee's business, you were saying it is not the people of Canada who funded the bank.

Would you like to retract that statement now, sir?

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

I'll again clarify that the purpose of the Canada Infrastructure Bank is to attract private capital—businesses that can invest in Canadian infrastructure and build Canadian infrastructure for the benefit of Canadians. We serve for the benefit of Canadians. These are businesses that can make investments to benefit Canadians.

Those investments do rely on commercial sensitivity. In many cases, those agreements have legal requirements for confidentiality around the specific terms of the agreements.

[Philip Lawrence, Conservative, Northumberland—Clarke, ON]

Thank you, Minister, but it is an objective fact that Parliament can request any document that it wants and that your government could pass a law to allow for that disclosure tomorrow. I, for one, would agree to unanimous consent on that.

Let's talk about something that's maybe a bit more directly under your purview. A couple of days ago, your newest member said this to local media:

...watching for 10 years, people on the government benches tend to get more for their ridings and their projects. Interestingly, after I crossed, I had a call yesterday from the infrastructure and housing minister's office wanting to get together and talk about the things we need in Sarnia—Lambton. I had sent (minister) Gregor Robinson, when I was re-elected in 2025, a one-page [list] of all the things...that we wanted in Sarnia. It really went nowhere, until I crossed the floor.

Did your office contact Miss Gladu right after her crossing?

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

I'm not aware of all my office's or staff's activities day to day. I am aware of the members' infrastructure and housing requests going back to last year, when this session of Parliament began. I got letters and lists from probably most members of Parliament.

[Philip Lawrence, Conservative, Northumberland—Clarke, ON]

With respect, you are really breaching the threshold for unbelievability. The crossing of a member would be, I would presume, a fairly big deal. For your office to contact her immediately after crossing and then for that member to comment on it, I think would be something you're aware of.

Are you honestly telling the committee that you don't know if your staff contacted Ms. Gladu?

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

That's correct. I don't have knowledge about that. My staff are contacting MPs every day. I have desks. I have advisers from every region of Canada who are constantly in touch with members of Parliament. I don't track that by the day.

[Philip Lawrence, Conservative, Northumberland—Clarke, ON]

Do you agree with Ms. Gladu's assumption that the individual members that are part of the government get preferred treatment and get more dollars?

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

I disagree, and I think at this point we're talking about the work of the Canada Infrastructure Bank, which certainly has done many of its projects in regions...irrespective of who the member of Parliament is. It has delivered those across the country.

[Philip Lawrence, Conservative, Northumberland—Clarke, ON]

Thank you, Minister.

I think it's quite clear that we have the CIB giving a development of over $200 billion to a Liberal insider, followed up by your newest member saying that in order to get government dollars you need to be a Liberal. I think it's quite clear where the evidence points.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much, Mr. Lawrence.

Thank you, Minister.

Next I'll turn the floor over to Ms. Fancy.

You have five minutes, please.

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

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Minister, for being here today.

I think we can all agree, at least on this side of the floor, why we're here. We're here because of my predecessor, who also worked on this project for four years while he was sitting. It wasn't until after the election that this project then needed to garner more support.

I just want to put it out there that we're here today because someone lost. They're sore about it. They had an ego hit because they wanted to be the one to make this announcement, which is the largest announcement ever made in my riding of South Shore—St. Margarets. I want to just say that this is really the reason we're here, people.

In terms of affordability and energy poverty, I think sometimes we forget that Nova Scotians right now pay some of the highest rates for power in the country. The Conservatives can talk every day during question period about affordability, but when we have some of these projects with capital investment in small rural ridings where we're from, this is huge.

We also need to remember some of the criteria that had to be met, and it took over four years to meet some of these criteria. Thirty-five thousand homes needed to be signed up. They garnered 50,000 homes. The reason they did this is that, back in 1992, the then-Conservative government sold one of our Crown corporations, our public utility, to Nova Scotia Power.

Since then, we have been under this monopoly in our province, paying some of the highest rates. They were allowed to then, within that whole plan, have rates increase by up to 9% every year. We just had a rate increase a couple of weeks ago—it was actually the day that we first talked about this here in committee—of 8.1%. While we talk about energy poverty, people in our province of Nova Scotia are literally having a hard time keeping the lights on.

I also want to talk a bit today about rural inclusion. This is a very rural riding in Nova Scotia, and sometimes, or always, we feel like we have to react to change instead of shaping it. Projects like this help shape change in our communities.

Also, 200 jobs.... I know that if anyone across the way right now had someone potentially wanting to take 200 jobs away from the people in their riding, they'd be a little peeved off as well—I said “peeved off”. I also want to mention that our provincial premier is a PC, and he fully supports this.

Minister, I want to thank you too, because not always do I have ministers who will come and do these announcements in my riding. I had you, Minister, come, as well as the Minister of Energy.

I'd like to start by asking you, Minister, what element of this announcement you are the most proud of to see delivered.

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

I was very happy to see this announcement come forward. I've been really impressed with the array of projects that the Canada Infrastructure Bank funds. Clean power has been a significant part of that for the CIB, particularly working with first nations, with indigenous people, to basically give them energy security in the north with renewable projects. That is good for those communities. It's resilience.

What I see with this project is a much larger version of that for Nova Scotia. Nova Scotia, as you state, has real challenges with power. The clean power supply is not there. The other piece that I think is really compelling is that this is a first stage in a much bigger build-out of renewable electricity on the Atlantic coast of Canada. Nova Scotia has enormous wind resources, both offshore and onshore. This is an onshore project. There are enormous resources in Newfoundland—onshore as well.

These are world-class wind resources that Canada is currently not reaping any benefit from. Nova Scotia is leading the way here with an exemplary project, leveraging private capital and creating energy choice for Nova Scotians, as well as building those initial building blocks to have a much larger clean grid in Atlantic Canada, which I think will benefit many more Canadians than just the Nova Scotians.

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

Thank you very much, Minister. I believe my time is out.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Yes, it is.

Thank you, Ms. Fancy, and thank you, Minister.

Mr. Barsalou‑Duval, you have the floor for two and a half minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Minister, you may be aware that the Bloc Québécois thinks that the Canada Infrastructure Bank is an institution that should be abolished. Actually, we are not the only ones who think so. A report by the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities says exactly that. In fact, there were concerns that the bank would be used for partisan purposes.

What we're seeing now is that $200 million is being sent by the Liberal government to Liberal friends through the Canada Infrastructure Bank. Do you not feel that this kind of decision fuels the perception that the Canada Infrastructure Bank is being used for political ends and erodes public trust in your required impartiality?

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

Through the chair, if you look at the array of 108 different projects across the country, there are great outcomes for Canadians far and wide. I think significant private investment has been leveraged from that. These are loans, so they are being paid back. I think there's been some language used by some members that [Inaudible—Editor]

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

Minister, we don't know the conditions for these loans. They are hidden from us; they have not been shared with us.

You didn't answer my question. I was asking you whether it eroded public trust when loans were granted by institutions like the Canada Infrastructure Bank, for which you are responsible, to friends of the Liberal Party.