Finance committee  Well, yes. I mentioned bureaucracy in regard to these projects. The politicians' approval might have to go through the bureaucratic process, and that slows everything down. The projects have support, but you guys in the federal government create a process that's long in every way.

Finance committee  Sure, we'll get it to you.

Finance committee  We have a close relationship with the province. Once the projects were approved, we had to go through a process.

Finance committee  We submitted five projects and we have approvals for four. We asked for changes in one of them, and this is being processed.

Finance committee  I don't think so, no.

Finance committee  I think I would take that a bit personally, that we're irresponsible and that we can't make decisions about how to spend money. I think we're pretty efficient, and we're right next door to the people, so as far as how we spend our money, I think we do it very well and very efficiently, number one.

Finance committee  Yes. The gas tax is a simple process. One of the challenges we face is that the government puts standards on things each time they decide to fund something. Then we have to come up with a program that fits into it. The gas tax already has all the terms and conditions in it, and it's a simple program.

Finance committee  Well, no, I think the government has to make a decision on how they want to fund the money, how they want to use it. From the city's point of view, it's wonderful that you want to fund various upgrades that you want to do, but from a municipal point of view, we need long-term sustainable funding.

Finance committee  That's right. You give them money and they call us. Well, then, you've allocated the money from us to them, and as a result of that, we're now short, so we have to put up our third. From our point of view, funding the cities with the gas tax allows us to have long-term planning to deal with the challenges we face.

Finance committee  There's no question that expansion of the gas tax facilitates cities in doing the kinds of things they want to do. It gives us long-term funding. I think it's a good direction. We don't make that policy. You guys make that policy. What we are pleased about, though, is that it is now permanent, which it wasn't before, so that allows us to plan for the long term.

Finance committee  To answer that question, FCM has always asked for the gas tax to be installed. It was installed and it has been made permanent. It would be a source of long-term funding, but no one has committed to increasing the amount of gas tax, that I know of, to go from a fuel tax to a gas tax.

Finance committee  Absolutely. I would concur.

Finance committee  Welcome to Edmonton. I apologize for not speaking French. My city's economic reality has changed a lot in a year. One year ago we were managing a boom. This year our economy has slowed significantly. Like you, we are streamlining our spending priorities while investing in major infrastructure, which has the dual purpose of building the city's infrastructure and supporting economic growth.