Thank you, Mr. Martin.
First, you know as well as I do that the municipalities have to abide by various provincial statutes and regulations: the Civil Code, the Municipal Code, the Elections Act, and so on.
In itself, the federal excise tax on gasoline is a very good tax. It has allowed most municipalities that receive it to do better long-term planning for infrastructure work. But the negative side of the tax, if it is applied to all infrastructure programs, is that small municipalities in rural Quebec and Canada, the ones with 500 to 1,000 people, would receive very small amounts. That would not make it possible for them to do major infrastructure work such as water and sewer lines, community centres, arenas, and so on. I think we always have to look at it from both angles.
I would also like to note that municipalities...