Mr. Speaker, I want to make it clear to the hon. member for Charlotte that there are several other parties, including Charlotte County Ports Inc., that have expressed interest in the possibility of assuming ownership of the port of Bayside.
I suppose the true test of the allegations the member for Charlotte made here today under the protection of the House of Commons would be if he would leave this place through those doors and repeat his story outside. Given what he said and some of the pretty tough language in his descriptions of some of the individuals involved, I am not a lawyer but I would probably caution him on leaving this place and saying outside of this place some of the things he said.
Let us get on with some of the concerns the hon. member for Charlotte and the hon. member from the Reform Party have in regard to governance and accountability of the port authorities under Bill C-9.
As the Minister of Transport has said, the federal government will give leadership in attaining national goals and in nurturing national programs and institutions.
Canada port authorities are specifically identified as strategic links in both national and international transportation and logistic chains. Crown agency status emphasizes that we are not seeking to privatize ports but to constitute port authorities as important instruments of federal public policy while at the same time providing for their increased commercialization.
We have made sure that port boards will be responsive to user concerns. We do this without losing sight of their accountability to the wider communities at the municipal, provincial or federal levels.
To foster good management, the bill gives a framework that guides port boards without frustrating day to day decision making, including such features as a code of conduct and provision for a periodic special examination. CPAs are to have a public code of conduct for directors, officers and employees designed to prevent real and perceived conflicts of interest. I trust that would make the hon. member for the Reform Party more satisfied that what is included in this bill does protect and is designed to prevent real and perceived conflicts of interest.
The code is expected to stipulate that prior to accepting an appointment to the board of directors, every director to be shall notify the CPA board of directors in writing of any business activity which would pose an actual, potential or perceived conflict of interest. Another point that the member for Charlotte might want to recognize.
Where the particulars of a given transaction or changing circumstances create a future conflict of interest, the code will place a director under a similar obligation to make full, immediate and written disclosure to the other directors and to refrain from participating in any related discussions or decisions of the board.
Some of the other controls that apply to the ports include the letters patent and any changes to them must be approved by the government.
Ports cannot dispose of federal land. Agent status will be limited to core port activities. Non-core activities will not receive agent status. The government will have to approve which non-core activities a port may undertake.
Ports will not be able to borrow as agents. They will have to convince commercial lenders of the merits of their proposed investments. The crown will not back up port loans. Borrowing limits will be established for each port. Ports will be directly responsible for any breach of duty or a contractual obligation to a third party.
The crown will specify through regulations the extent of insurance a port must carry. The Minister of Transport will specify the maximum terms of leases. We have put measures into the bill to protect the crown from liabilities of the ports and to ensure they are accountable.
Perhaps the most important accountability mechanism stems from the fact that ports will have to raise their financing in the private sector. Port development aspirations will be subjected to ordinary measures of commercial risk. The law ensures that with few exceptions appropriations cannot be made for port deficits. This means they have to be more efficient than they are today and that the government will not cover their liabilities.
Canada port authorities will have a high degree of transparency through rigorous disclosure to the public. Bill C-9 requires each port authority to provide for the following: a public annual and financial report, a public annual audit, a public land use plan, an annual general meeting open to the public at which directors and senior officers are available to answer questions from the public, disclosure of remuneration and expenses of board members, and details of port operating expenses.
The Reform's idea of a special examination quite often gets confused with the need for an annual financial audit while each procedure makes a report on the total operations. The financial audit answers these questions. Did the port follow the rules? Do the records provide a full and fair disclosure of how the port was run?
In a special examination, as suggested by a member of the Reform Party, different questions are asked. Does the port have the right set of rules? Do its procedures and reporting systems help the port in meeting its true obligations, or should they be changed?
In Bill C-9 the minister plays a key role in fine tuning port objectives through the letters patent and other procedures. This means that a special examination will be important to the minister in considering periodic changes to the letters patent in response to evolving conditions.
Port authorities are also covered under the Access to Information Act which further strengthens their accountability to all stakeholders. In addition we have taken measures to ensure that ports must borrow in their own name and not in the name of the crown to emphasize to lenders that the crown does not stand behind these obligations.
These are appropriate arrangements to support the commercialization of our ports. I thank members opposite for their participation in this stage of the bill and in this block of amendments.