Mr. Speaker, we do in fact support the principle of the legislation to privatize the administration of ports in Canada. We support it because, up to now, these ports were managed by a federal agency. We are sure, given the management of these ports in recent years, that they will be better off not managed by a federal agency, and I congratulate the government warmly for having the humility to understand this in introducing this legislation.
We therefore support the principle of the legislation, but we have amendments, because we feel it needs improving in certain important areas. I am thinking specifically of clause 8. It provides that certain ports may be managed by local authorities. The principle is obviously an excellent one, and the conditions the government is setting for transferring management of the port to a local authority are reasonable.
They include the port's having a certain financial autonomy, a link to major roads and rail lines, and so forth. That all makes good sense.
The problem is that the vendor or transferor, before transferring the property, should return it to good condition, especially when requiring that it be financially autonomous.
As a result of the, shall we say, less than favourable management of these ports in recent years, some of them are in need of major repairs. There are 324 ports in Canada and the paltry sum of $125 million is all that has been set aside for this operation. We will try, through our amendments, to have this amount increased.
Still on the topic of ports, we were not in the least surprised to learn in this bill that the federal government wants to divest itself of all financial responsibility. It will no longer pay anything towards port administration. I said that this did not surprise us in the least and, without wanting to jump to any conclusions, we even think that unloading this financial burden may have been one of the reasons for introducing this bill.
When one intends to stop paying, it is not normal to want to keep calling the shots. A look at clause 14 concerning the composition of boards of directors makes it clear that Ottawa intends to retain control of these ports through third parties.
What does clause 14 say?
14.(1) The directors of a port authority shall be appointed as follows:
(a) the Governor in Council appoints one individual nominated by the Minister;
(b) the municipalities—
(c) the province or provinces—
(d) the Governor in Council appoints the remaining individuals nominated by the Minister in consultation with users—
When you consider that between seven and eleven directors will be appointed, three of them not by Ottawa, the fact remains that the majority of seats will still be subject to government appointment, even if the government says it is going to consult, yes, consult local authorities. We propose that, instead of consultation, appointments be direct and unconditional.
To date, the St. Lawrence Seaway has cost the public $7 billion and brings in $70 million annually. I do not think there are many private corporations that would be happy with a return as low as 1% on their investment, and yet that is the return generated by the seaway.
The concern regarding the profitability of the seaway, which we should be looking at, is the reduced traffic on the seaway. We think things will only get worse given that Saskatchewan grain en route to Germany goes through Vancouver and the Panama canal rather than via Thunder Bay and the seaway, which would seem to be the more logical route geographically. Similarly, grain going to Russia is sent to Vladivostok, which is a bit odd, because it is in Siberia.
So there is some inconsistency, which may come from a conflict in rates between the railway and the seaway, and which will be of concern to the new administrators, if the seaway is to recover its life and vigour.
That summarizes our positions on this first series of amendments being debated today. We support the principle of the bill, on the condition that the major amendments we are proposing are approved by this House, which I encourage it to do.