I think the member's question is entirely appropriate. Regardless of the terms and conditions, we have to make sure there are permanent infrastructure programs. That is the objective we are all going for. They have to be government programs. How can we get party politics out of access to the money and make sure that fairness is the foundation of the programs, so that regardless of how big a municipality is it will have access to funds at all times, so it can gradually fix things and catch up from the lag that everyone has been talking about for years? How do we make sure that these funds are available? I think there are costs and benefits in both cases, whether it be from the excise tax or infrastructure programs.
The Fédération Québécoise des Municipalités can never argue too much for modulation. Communities that urgently need money have to have speedy access to it. How can we make sure that a program is accessible, regardless of how big or small our municipalities are and, most importantly, regardless of what the allegiance of the riding where we live is? That is a government guarantee, the government has to give us this assurance that a program is in the first place a government program, not a party program. You see the difference? In my opinion, society must be given that guarantee.