Laurie in Question Period
Building Canada Infrastructure Funding
Ms Blakeman: Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. It appears that the building Canada fund contract for Alberta has been signed. You wouldn’t know that here in Alberta, but that’s the way it is on the federal site. Today we hear that the Art Gallery of Alberta is waiting for its promised share of this federal funding, but the local Conservative MP says that his provincial cousins are holding it up. So to his provincial cousin the President of the Treasury Board: where is Alberta’s money? Why is the minister holding it up?
Mr. Snelgrove: Nothing like cousins that kiss and tell, eh? Mr. Speaker, Alberta has been involved in a very long and, I might say, complicated process of working through the federal government’s many different requirements around this infrastructure. Now, we signed the base funding agreement way back in May, the framework agreement. Since then we have been working on all of the other subclauses in the agreement. The Art Gallery money that was forwarded by us to allow them to keep moving while we worked on this agreement, which will work its way through, was a sign of good faith on behalf of this government. The position of the federal government we’ll get to in the second question, I’m betting.
Ms Blakeman: Well, what steps does the President of the Treasury Board plan to take to improve the communication and understanding with his federal cousins so that Alberta can get the money we’ve been waiting for?
Mr. Snelgrove: Mr. Speaker, the holdup on the base funding agreement right now is an indemnification clause, where the federal government wants us to indemnify them for projects they pick. We are simply saying in this process: if we’re to indemnify you, you should indemnify us. We’re both putting money; this is a joint decision. This might seem like common sense, that you could just do it. Well, sometimes the federal bureaucracy doesn’t work like that.
The other aspect. It is an environmental assessment that the federal government requires. In many cases it would cost more than the project. We’re simply saying that we have a good process in place in Alberta to do these projects and bring them through a process. That is unacceptable at this time to the federal government, but it’s not acceptable for us to turn that requirement over to the federal government.
The Speaker: The hon. member.
Ms Blakeman: Well, thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Back to the President of the Treasury Board. Every other province has managed to get their money. Why can’t the President of the Treasury Board negotiate to get our money so it can go towards those public transit projects that it was destined for in Alberta?
Mr. Snelgrove: Yeah. It’s interesting. Even some other provinces, Mr. Speaker, managed to get planning money for their provinces, like Quebec, for example, that were given an opportunity within this agreement that we weren’t. The rights and the responsibilities of Treasury Board, of Infrastructure, and of Transportation on behalf of Albertans is to ensure that we are planning and bringing forward projects in an orderly manner and serve the priorities from an Alberta point of view. In many ways the federal government was faced with an election, that we weren’t, and I think they felt an opportunity, that maybe announcing some projects that weren’t within the guidelines was necessary. From our point the rights of Albertans and responsibilities of Albertans is paramount.
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