Finance committee  I guess there are a few things that I feel I can follow up on in terms of information points, but I think a lot of what you're hypothesizing is in the realm of conjecture, and I'm not going to be able to comment on it. A $17-billion figure isn't something that—

Finance committee  That has not come to my attention. That's a number you've said, but that's not a number that has come to my attention. First and foremost, this is a project that is being undertaken from a commercial mindset, and the Crown corporation responsible would have in mind its ability t

Finance committee  The $7.4 billion was to cover the portion of construction that had already taken place.

Finance committee  No, the—

Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  The $7.4 billion is the construction cost.

Finance committee  The entity does not have the ability to simply flow its costs through for payment by the government.

Finance committee  I mentioned, for example, that the corporate plans must be approved, and I probably didn't say that they go through a process that involves approval by the Treasury Board. I'm sure you would have seen corporate plan summaries of various entities tabled recently in Parliament as w

Finance committee  The estimate that has been released publicly by the board is quite old at this point. It's the $7.4 billion that I'm sure you have seen.

Finance committee  Projects of this nature that have encountered significant uncertainties and delays on an already very large infrastructure project.... My experience in seeing infrastructure projects is that costs tend to go up over time. I wouldn't be surprised if that's the direction, based on

Finance committee  Yes. The Crown corporations in any government minister's portfolio are responsible to provide corporate plans. As I mentioned in passing on the question of accountabilities, the overall planned activities and the cash or the capital requirements of Crowns run through an appropria

Finance committee  There are different instruments for different Crown corporations, but if we're talking about the Trans Mountain Corporation, which I think we are—

Finance committee  —to date the financing has been untaken on the EDC Canada Account. The Canada Account involves a statutory appropriation versus a voted appropriation. I think it would be premature for me to comment, going forward, on how future costs related to the projects would be financed,

Finance committee  The Canada Account is a construct that exists through the legislation. The act is the Export Development Act, so it's—

Finance committee  It does create the statutory appropriation. On EDC's website there is a disclosure about the transactions that have been undertaken on the Canada Account.