I'm just going to jump in here, as chair, with a question.
Most of us in the House are fairly dedicated now to getting stimulus money out the front door. But it puzzles me that if there was unspent infrastructure spending availability in the current fiscal year, 2008-09, running into the billions—at least a billion or billions—and if the Bill C-10 stimulus package isn't really going to hit the street until the next fiscal year, I'm kind of puzzled why there isn't a real initiative to get out the already-appropriated, approved spending in the current fiscal year.
The problem is actually now. In fact, the government has support in the House maybe only because of that need for stimulus spending. And if there's money unspent, ready to be spent, why isn't there a whip somewhere getting that money out yesterday? The fears expressed around here about the money not getting out quickly apply just as much to the unspent money from 2008-09.
Can somebody answer that?