Transport, Infrastructure and Communities

The committee debated a motion from Xavier Barsalou-Duval to set its agenda. The motion had three parts: first, to immediately publish all documents already received from the Prime Minister's Office, the Privy Council Office, the Canada Infrastructure Bank, and the departments of Housing and Transport; second, to hold three more meetings on the Canada Infrastructure Bank's financing of new BC Ferries vessels, calling a list of witnesses including shipyards, unions, former minister Chrystia Freeland, and the Minister of Public Safety; and third, to then begin a new six-meeting study on "Driver Inc." in the trucking industry, summoning the ministers of Transport, Labour, and Revenue.

Liberal members argued the BC Ferries study was unnecessary, saying the decision was made by a provincial entity, that no Canadian shipyard bid, and that recalling former minister Freeland would not yield new information. Conservative and Bloc members countered that newly revealed emails showed Transport Canada was warned six weeks before the deal was announced, contradicting Freeland's public statements, and that the committee needed to investigate the timeline and national security concerns.

After debate, the committee adopted the motion as amended. The amendments added Ontario Shipyards to the witness list, changed "summon" to "invite" for ministers in the Driver Inc. study, and specified that national security officials would appear in camera while the Minister of Public Safety would appear in public. The motion passed with those changes.