Transport Committee on June 16th, 2025

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Are there any objections to that, colleagues?

There are not. That's perfect.

We have Mr. Albas moving that we adopt all of the routine motions as an omnibus.

(Motions agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

Thank you. That's wonderful.

Now I have the honour and pleasure of inviting Alexandre back as an analyst. We worked together for many years and we're going to be well served by his services.

We also have someone new, whom I just met this morning. I'll give you an opportunity to present yourself to the members of the committee.

[Khamla Heminthavong, Analyst]

Hello, my name is Khamla Heminthavong. It's a great pleasure to be here.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you.

For the members online, please remember that you're on mute.

We're good with the routine motions as adopted.

Go ahead, Mr. Muys.

[Dan Muys, Conservative, Flamborough—Glanbrook—Brant North, ON]

I served on this committee for the entirety of the 44th Parliament. A few committee reports that we worked on diligently with staff, the clerks and the analysts did not receive a government response prior to the dissolution of Parliament, so I'd like to propose that we move that those be retabled and that we ask for a response.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you, Mr. Muys.

[Dan Muys, Conservative, Flamborough—Glanbrook—Brant North, ON]

I can specify what those are, if you wish.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Yes. Do you want to read those in to make sure we are all on the same page?

[Dan Muys, Conservative, Flamborough—Glanbrook—Brant North, ON]

Sure.

It is:

That the committee adopt the report entitled “The Erie Lake Connector: A Project in the Best Interest of the Public?” and the corresponding supplementary and dissenting reports that were adopted in the first session of the 44th Parliament; that, pursuant to Standing Order 109, the committee request the government table a comprehensive response to the report; and that the Chair present that report to the House.

That's one of them.

There are four studies.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Go ahead.

[Dan Muys, Conservative, Flamborough—Glanbrook—Brant North, ON]

I won't reread the whole verbiage. I'll just cite the studies.

There was one, “Towards Accessible Air Transportation in Canada”. That was a study we completed that did not receive a response. The third one was “Issues and Opportunities: High Frequency Rail in the Toronto to Quebec City Corridor”, and then the fourth one was “The Role of McKinsey & Company in the Creation and the Beginnings of the Canada Infrastructure Bank”. All of those were completed. There were reports tabled, and dissenting reports, but there were no comprehensive responses.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you, Mr. Muys.

We've all heard the terms of Mr. Muys's motion. I think there were discussions prior to the meeting as well.

All those in favour of retabling those reports in the House, please so signify.

(Motion agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Mr. Barsalou-Duval, are you in favour of…

[Xavier Barsalou-Duval, Bloc, Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, QC]

Mr. Chair, I must admit that I haven't been following closely, but I assume this is about getting the reports and the government responses, which I have no problem with.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

That's great.

Thank you, colleagues.

Go ahead, Mr. Albas.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Okanagan Lake West—South Kelowna, BC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Congratulations on your role. I look forward to working with everyone.

I would like this committee to debate the following motion so that we can refer it to the House: “Given that BC Ferries has announced that it will purchase four new full-size ferries from a Chinese state-owned company rather than from a proven Canadian shipbuilder such as Seaspan in north Vancouver, and given that the Liberal government is set to subsidize this purchase with a handout to BC Ferries, that it be reported to the House that the committee calls on the government to attach to its transfer payments to BC Ferries a common-sense condition of buying Canadian-built ships built by Canadian workers.”

If you like, I can read that in French as well.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

If you'd like to, Mr. Albas, sure.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Are you giving notice of motion here?

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Okanagan Lake West—South Kelowna, BC]

No. I'd like us to debate this now so that we can get this immediately before the House as a recommendation—or reported to the House, I should say.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Go ahead, Mr. Kelloway.

[Mike Kelloway, Liberal, Sydney—Glace Bay, NS]

I'm just wondering when you can get that sent to us in both official languages so that we can review it as well.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you, Mr. Kelloway.

Can we have that? Is there any objection to suspending for five minutes while that's being sent around so that people can have a look at it and have discussions?

This meeting is suspended to the call of the chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

I call this meeting back to order.

Mr. Kelloway, you have something to say, and then we'll go to Mr. Barsalou-Duval.

[Mike Kelloway, Liberal, Sydney—Glace Bay, NS]

Thanks, Chair and the member opposite, for putting that forward.

Our thought on this is that we will have some time to plan our approaches, studies and thoughts going forward in September.

When it comes to BC Ferries, there is, I think, some reasonable debate on our side that would focus on the fact that this is predominantly a provincial matter.

What we're hoping to do is focus on Bill C-5, the one Canadian economy act. There's a lot to pack into the next 48 hours with respect to witnesses from different stakeholder groups that are coming in. Our hopes, expectations and thoughts here are on looking at planning our schedule in September. Maybe this will be part of it or maybe it will not, but right now we have quite a few things in the hopper that relate to Bill C-5.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you, Mr. Kelloway.

I'll turn it back over to Mr. Albas, as it was his motion.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Okanagan Lake West—South Kelowna, BC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Look, we are facing some trade-offs here. I obviously know that there is some important business that the committee wants to attend to. However, if we do not require the government to immediately tell the Province of British Columbia and BC Ferries that they need to start doing shipbuilding here in Canada, whether that be at Seaspan in north Vancouver, Davie shipyards in Quebec or another shipyard, the fact right now is that the B.C. government and BC Ferries are proceeding to purchase ships from this state-owned enterprise.

If we are going to be responsible members of Parliament, we need to immediately give notice to the House of our opinion that this should not go forward. I would simply ask that everyone support this common-sense amendment to support Canadian jobs at Irving shipyards, Davie shipyards or Seaspan, and make that statement right now, because the B.C. government is being pressured. We need to tell BC Ferries to stop this procurement process and to restart it.

If we, as members of the transport committee, don't immediately put our feet down and say that this is not tenable and that Canadian jobs should be supported first, I'm afraid that if we simply wait until we get to this—maybe in the fall—then that option point will have passed us by, and we will only have ourselves to blame.

I ask all honourable members to support Canadian jobs and Canadian steel, especially during this time when our steel and aluminum industries are being hit so hard. We must stand firm that we cannot be offshoring to places that subsidize their steel and have lower environmental regulations and substandard labour situations that allow them to undercut Canadian enterprises like shipbuilding and steel.