Mr. Chair, what is also concerning is that a senior Department of Finance official commented that the finance minister's announcement of possible indemnification or taxpayer dollars being sunk into the Trans Mountain pipeline was a so-called test of Kinder Morgan's commitment to their expansion. I would say that is a pretty high-stakes game of poker to play with the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of Canadians.
The CEO of the Surrey Board of Trade says they continue to support the Trans Mountain expansion with the 15,000 jobs it will create, mostly in the trades, but that “The Canadian government should not be using taxpayer money to compensate for project delays and to indemnify financial losses.”
Again, can the minister confirm whether or not they will be bringing forward legislation to ensure that the Trans Mountain expansion goes ahead, and if they even have a ballpark figure of what this might cost taxpayers?