Transport committee  Could I answer?

Transport committee  To answer on the 1%, I've not actually seen the data myself. I'm simply given a verbal summary by department officials. To Mr. Bevington's point as well--and government officials have made the same point--the 40 projects that in the database were deemed to be at risk are all so deemed based on progress reports that are submitted very early on in a project's lifespan, so they anticipate that number could go up.

Transport committee  Absolutely. We have no idea whether it could go up or down. If you're one of those people, it's helpful not to be a statistic, but if you are a statistic, all of a sudden the number becomes extremely important.

Transport committee  All of our members are, and have been, working flat out. Indeed, as I said, they started planning these projects even before Parliament was able to introduce their budget. Everyone is working as hard as they can. We've said very clearly that we think this is a great program. There are cases where, for a variety of reasons, people are going to have trouble.

Transport committee  Well, I think you've put your finger on the head of quite a few important issues. At the end of the day, I think everyone here has been very clear that this program is working extremely well. There are challenges in a small number of communities at this point. But you're right, a lot of it is actually still fairly hypothetical; there are still nine more months until the deadline.

Transport committee  Yes.

Transport committee  Yes, the last time I spoke to the department, they had data from the March 31 progress reports, as you know. Of course, they, themselves, cautioned that the March 31 reports weren't going to show a lot of activity in the case of many projects, because they wouldn't have been able to start until around then.

Transport committee  Do you mean who was there from the department?

Transport committee  I'm not sure who was there from the department. From FCM it was Brock and Gabe and Basil.

Transport committee  It will depend, I think, on how those unanticipated costs occurred. As I said, municipalities chose projects to be completed by the deadline based on their understanding of when they would get approval from the federal and provincial governments. When you plan a complex infrastructure project, you plan for unanticipated events.

Transport committee  I think it depends on why they didn't have enough time to meet those unanticipated events. In some cases, they have enough time to do it; in some cases, they don't. If they don't have enough time because of delays in project approvals that were the result of provincial and federal decisions, our contention is that there should be flexibility, so that municipal ratepayers aren't paying for that.

Transport committee  Obviously you'd have to ask our provincial association counterparts, but in all cases, this is a three-way cash-sharing program. Provinces always have to be involved. Indeed, I think it's important for committee members to understand it's not just the federal government that needs to consider these types of administrative changes.

Transport committee  Exactly.

Transport committee  Yes, that's true. I know I've spoken to municipalities in Alberta who signed exactly that form when they applied for the funding and then waited seven or eight months before they got their approval. You're right, all municipalities went into this knowing what the guideline was.

Transport committee  It's just gives us the time we need to finish the project so that the federal share of the total project cost can be reimbursed to the municipal government. In some cases, construction costs might be decreased, because of course if you can spread the time to complete a project over a longer period, less overtime might be needed.