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Transportation

In question period on transportation, the NDP asked about private investors taking over the operations of airports and ports, saying this amounts to privatization that will raise travel costs, and asked the minister to call it privatization. The Liberal minister replied that port lands remain federally owned and that port authorities have always leased land to private companies, which is not changing.Written by AI from the debate. Updated .

Official text

2 statements

Jenny Kwan

NDP
“The government is letting private investors run our airports and ports for profit, which will make travel more expensive. I want the minister to admit that this is privatization.”
Official Hansard

Mr. Speaker, Canadians are clear that Canada is not for sale. The Liberals claim they are not selling off Canada’s assets, but the doublespeak is deafening. The Prime Minister says he is not privatizing airports, yet he is inviting private investors to take over their operations, collect massive profits and make travel more expensive. In other words, it is privatization. The minister says ports will not be privatized, but in reality, they are opening the door to every aspect of port operations to private investors. Will the minister just admit that terms like “financial flexibility” and “modernization” are just code for privatization?

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Steven MacKinnon

Liberal
“The government still owns the port lands and port authorities manage them. These authorities have always leased the land to private companies, and that is not changing.”
Official Hansard

Mr. Speaker, as the member knows, she lives in a community that hosts Canada’s largest port by far, and we want to thank the hard-working men and women at the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority and everyone who works in the port of Vancouver ecosystem. Port lands are just that. They are federally owned lands run by port authorities that report, obviously, through the Minister of Transport to Parliament, and they lease that land to private operators. It has been that way since everyone can remember and will continue to work that way.

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