Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my colleague's interest in infrastructure in the Quebec City area. I can assure him that this Conservative government is very strongly committed to renewing infrastructure not only in Quebec but across the country.
In budget 2013, we announced the new building Canada plan, a renewed commitment for infrastructure in this country: $53 billion in infrastructure funding over the next decade. This is the longest and largest infrastructure plan in Canada's history, with record investments in infrastructure.
One of the very powerful aspects of the way the program works is that municipalities and provinces are in a position to identify and determine the infrastructure priorities in their specific communities. Municipalities across Quebec and across our great country know that they can rely on this federal government for strong, stable infrastructure funding over the next decade.
The new building Canada plan is open for business. At the end of March, the Minister of Infrastructure, Communities and Intergovernmental Affairs announced the eligibility criteria for the new program. All the information about the new building Canada fund is on the Infrastructure Canada website at www.infrastructure.gc.ca.
In many cases, municipalities are already identifying their infrastructure project priorities. Once they do that, they have a discussion with the respective province. The province then needs to deem a specific project a priority before it is considered under the provincial and territorial infrastructure component of the new building Canada fund. Just this one component is $10 billion of infrastructure commitment over the next decade, of which 10% is for small communities. There is a small-communities fund of dedicated funding for communities across the country of 100,000 residents or less.
We look forward to working with our partners, the municipalities and provinces across this great country, to renew our infrastructure, to enhance the quality of life for Canadians, and to ensure that as a result of this renewed infrastructure, jobs will be created as well.