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  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  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  If you have the information on the website, that's what we could follow up with as well as the decision, the points of accountability around the use of the Canada Account. I think you do have that already, but I would have followed up and provided that information.

Finance committee  I'll take that question.

Finance committee  As both the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance have said, and you rightly quote, the government is very much aware of the extremely challenging circumstances in Canada's energy sector from the double whammy of the OPEC+ supply glut and the demand depression resulting from

Finance committee  I just want to say that it continues to be the case that this is a pressing and recognized challenge. I know it's not what you would like to hear, but it really is a “stay tuned”. We're very near.

Finance committee  Certainly. As shown earlier this week by the announcement of the $17.3 million in respect of northern airlines and airlines support, the government is following very closely—and it's my colleagues at Transport Canada as well as ISC—these developments and impacts of COVID-19 in re