Transport Committee on June 18th, 2025

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

We all try our best, Ms. May—well done.

All right, we're going to go to BQ-21.

Go ahead, Mr. Barsalou‑Duval.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The objective of BQ-21 is similar to what we saw in BQ-17, BQ-18, BQ-19 and BQ-20. I hope everyone is convinced of the importance of respecting the wishes of Quebec and the provinces this time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you, Mr. Barsalou‑Duval.

Are there any questions or comments?

(Amendment negatived [See Minutes of Proceedings])

Now we have CPC-8.

I'll turn the floor over to you, Ms. Stubbs.

[Shannon Stubbs, Conservative, Lakeland, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Given that we all now—and we're happy to see the Liberals suddenly join us in this regard—appreciate the importance of energy security and national security; that they are inextricably linked; that we have to protect Canadian businesses, supply chains and value chains; and that that's our duty as public representatives, my amendment seeks to ensure that foreign or state-owned investments from adversaries or hostile countries to Canada will face an automatic national security review. Of course, that's necessary to protect Canada's national interests, to safeguard Canada's critical infrastructure and major national interest projects from foreign interference. We do believe that this would reinforce Canadians' public confidence and also investor confidence in national interest projects.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much, Ms. Stubbs.

Are there any questions or comments? I see none.

(Amendment agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

Next is NDP-28, colleagues.

(Amendment negatived [See Minutes of Proceedings])

Now we have PV-10.

I will turn the floor back over to Ms. May if we still have her joining us online from the riding of Jaime Battiste.

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

I'm honoured to be on the traditional territory of the Mi'kmaq, Maliseet and Passamaquoddy peoples.

Wela'lin.

I'm now very much looking at ways to achieve greater transparency. In the same spirit, this would require that “the Minister...make available to the public all information...relevant to the project and that can...be publicly [reviewed and] disclosed, including a detailed description..., any information received” and so on so that the public can be informed. As well, of course...that indigenous peoples know that the information and knowledge that is described that could be considered confidential as it is gleaned from indigenous knowledge holders....

Again, it is important that this bill have additional work in addition to the Conservative amendment on greater transparency. This would make information far more widely available to the Canadian public. Certainly, anything “that can reasonably be publicly disclosed”—obviously, not confidential business information or, as I mentioned earlier, indigenous knowledge that is not to be publicly shared.... However, certainly the Canadian public is entitled to a lot more information than that which is currently described: the name of the project, its location and minimal other information.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much, Ms. May.

Are there questions or comments, colleagues? Seeing none, I'll go to a vote.

(Amendment negatived [See Minutes of Proceedings])

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Moving on to BQ-22 now.

Mr. Barsalou‑Duval, you have the floor.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The objective of the amendment is to ensure that, when the minister sets the conditions for designating a project of national interest, he considers biodiversity and ensures that every effort is made to protect it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you, Mr. Barsalou‑Duval.

Are there any questions or comments?

(Amendment negatived [See Minutes of Proceedings])

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Let us now move on the BQ-23.

Go ahead, Mr. Barsalou‑Duval.

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

I think I will be forced not to move BQ-23, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much.

Amendment BQ-23 has been withdrawn.

We'll now go to CPC-9.

For that, I'll turn it back over to Ms. Stubbs.

[Shannon Stubbs, Conservative, Lakeland, AB]

Thank you, Chair.

It's a bit related to the amendment that the Liberals just defeated—bizarrely, they're not wanting to ensure that there are national security reviews of investments in resources and major projects by potentially hostile state-owned regimes and adversaries to Canada—so maybe they'll accept this amendment.

We sure do hope they will, given all of the news about foreign intervention from hostile regimes in all kinds of areas in Canada. At the very least, we hope that they will support this amendment, which would at least ensure the following:

the Minister must be satisfied that, with regard to any foreign investments in the project, all necessary measures have been taken to protect national security interests.

I hope that is an amendment the Liberals can support.

(Amendment agreed to)

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

We find common ground in this committee, Ms. Stubbs.

We're on NDP-29, colleagues.

(Amendment negatived [See Minutes of Proceedings])

We'll now go to CPC-10.

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

Mr. Chair, at the start of the meeting, the member for Argenteuil—La Petite‑Nation suggested that, if a subamendment was to be moved, that be indicated to the chair 15 minutes before the end of the meeting to give the committee the time to debate and vote on it before midnight. We are now 15 minutes before the end of the meeting, so I would like the committee's consent to move the subamendment that I wanted to move.

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

Conservatives are in agreement.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

If I recall correctly, Mr. Barsalou‑Duval, your subamendment pertained to CPC-11.

Do we have unanimous consent to move to CPC-11 to allow for Mr. Barsalou-Duval to submit his subamendment before the time expires?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

We'll turn it over to you, Mr. Lawrence.

Before you do that, I'm just going to read that there is a line conflict with NDP-37 and BQ-31.

Mr. Lawrence, the floor is yours.

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

Thank you very much.

As was apparent in my questioning of Minister LeBlanc, the operation of proposed sections 21, 22 and 23 gives the government the unfettered ability to exempt any national project from any legislation passed since 1867.

Conservatives believe that there should be a restriction on that. While we admit candidly that our solution is not perfect because this legislation is not perfect, we very much believe that this is an important limitation.

We would ask for all members to consider supporting this very common-sense control on the ability of a minister to exempt a national project from literally any legislation.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much, Mr. Lawrence.

You now have the floor, Mr. Barsalou‑Duval, to propose your subamendment.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The objective of my subamendment is to add laws to those listed in CPC-11. My subamendment would therefore add paragraphs h), i) and j). Paragraph h) would mention the Official Languages Act; paragraph i) would mention the Use of French in Federally Regulated Private Businesses Act; and paragraph j) would mention the Indian Act.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you, Mr. Barsalou‑Duval.

Have all the committee members received a copy of Mr. Barsalou‑Duval's subamendment in both official languages?