David Collenette

[Transport, December 3rd, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member has confused the facts so much that it is a wonder he can really put a question together.

First of all, highways are a provincial jurisdiction. The provinces set the priorities as to where they are built.

In the past there have been different kinds of funding arrangements between the federal and provincial governments, but it was not until 1997 that the whole issue of tolls came into force. In fact, they were not contemplated in any cost sharing agreement before 1997 when New Brunswick decided to apply tolls.

We, of course, have responded to that by saying to them that the federal contribution should not be factored in as part of the tolling arrangement.

[Transport, December 2nd, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, one year after this matter on the question of tolls on the Trans-Canada Highway by my friend from the Conservative party was raised, the NDP has awakened to the issue because the auditor general has made some reference to it.

I have answered these questions in the House. We are developing a policy on the applicability of tolls in the context of federal-provincial highways. I welcome the opinions of the New Democratic Party and others. As far as we are concerned there are no improprieties in this agreement or in the conduct of the former minister.

[Transport, December 2nd, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I am not sure the auditor general is saying that at all.

All the parties to the agreement have complied. What the hon. member is doing is raising in the House of Commons a very serious allegation about the former minister of transport and I am wondering if he will repeat that outside the Chamber.

[Transport, December 2nd, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, despite the hon. member's selective quotes from the auditor general's report, all the regular procedures were followed. There was no impropriety on the part of the former minister of transport or on the part of the New Brunswick government in the establishment of this highway.

We have covered this issue a number of times in question period. I have said the federal government will make no further contributions involving any tolls on highways until we have a full policy established after consultation with the provinces. That should be satisfactory to the hon. member.

[Highways, December 2nd, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, as I said, the auditor general appears to confuse minimum acceptable standards and design standards. Those standards are developed in concert with the provinces which have the engineers and the experts.

What the auditor general seems to imply is that the federal government should set up a parallel department to mirror all of the work the provinces do. We do not do that. His analysis is predicated on faulty assumptions.

[Highways, December 2nd, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, the auditor general confuses minimum acceptable national standards for the national highway system with normal evaluations.

We have engineers and experts of the provinces—

[Highways, December 2nd, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member takes great licence with the auditor general's report because he has come to conclusions that the auditor general did not come to.

The auditor general came to some conclusions. Quite frankly, Transport Canada disagrees with most of them and we told the auditor general and his staff that we disagree with them.

We disagree that the federal government failed to control highway funding. We disagree that Transport Canada failed to provide accurate information. We get our information from the provinces. We work with the provinces. We do not parallel the provinces.

If the auditor general has a problem, he should talk to the provinces about the information they provide us with.

[Transport, November 30th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I just addressed that point. We have been active in recruitment, reclassification and improving our training. It was Canada that said to ICAO we would like it as the international aviation authority to audit our safety procedures. It has been doing this in the last couple of months. The interim report we have received is very positive and will be made public in the new year.

[Transport, November 30th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, first of all, I assure the hon. member that Transport Canada has never downsized the number of air inspectors. In fact, there has been an increase of 179 over the last 5 years.

It is important to understand that this study was commissioned by the Department of Transport, and is available under access to information, because the department was concerned about the implications for safety with respect to a lot of the changes going on in the last few years.

As a result we put in place a program to reclassify people and to recruit people for air inspection. ICAO has just completed a study of our air inspection and preliminary reports say the system is—

[Transport, November 19th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, we have been setting up port advisory committees across the country. We have put a public notice in the newspapers in Halifax. We put a group of people together, six of whom represent the chamber of commerce. Four represent the Halifax shipping authority. One represents organized labour and was the unanimous choice of organized labour, the longshoremen's union. They have come together to devise a process for future nominations that will be incorporated into the letters patent.

We have been doing this with every single port across the country. Halifax is no different.

The group has selected categories of users and we will have to select people to represent those categories.

Not one director has been appointed. We are certainly open to suggestions, even from the opposite—