I would say, with respect to the infrastructure stimulus fund, for example, that it's been fairly well distributed. Others have said that. Mr. Martin, the vice-chair of this committee, just said that. In the case of your province, Quebec, you got your per capita share. In Quebec's case, they have the law that requires the federal government, in areas of provincial jurisdiction, to work with the province. That is not something I have a problem with. I respect that. So we work with the province.
We don't make all the decisions about how the money is spent. Generally speaking, we try to ensure that it is spread evenly around the country. Does that mean that it is done by electoral district? Not necessarily. For example, here in Ottawa, there is a convention centre that happens to have been built 100 metres inside the riding of Ottawa—Vanier, but it will be of benefit to the entire region, frankly, on both sides of the river. Carleton University is building across the river from the Ottawa South riding, but it will benefit people across the region, and indeed in the country. Generally speaking, we have tried to make an effort to ensure that it is fairly well distributed.
It won't be perfect on an electoral boundary by electoral boundary basis. But generally speaking, we look at all regions of Quebec. We look at all regions of Canada. We've tried to ensure that it is, by and large, fairly distributed.
We are only one player of the three. Some municipalities requested very little money. Others requested substantially more money. Some municipalities came to the table with phenomenal projects. One municipality requested money to build a new house for an elephant at their zoo. I didn't think that was a very good idea to fund, and we didn't. It depends on the quality of the project.
I am a former environment minister. Quebec has put great priority on clean water. We have a partnership with them, something called PRECO, that works very well. They have responded to a pretty core infrastructure need very well.