The budget proposes investing $1.8 billion over 10 years, as of 2018-2019, to strengthen the cultural and recreational infrastructure. Out of this amount, $1.3 billion will be allocated to bilateral agreements between the provinces or territories and the federal government, $300 million over 10 years will be awarded to the Canada Cultural Spaces Fund, which is directly managed by Canadian Heritage, and $80 million over 10 years will be used for the creation of educational infrastructures in minority official language communities.
Of course, the various non-profit organizations everywhere in Canada may present requests to obtain funds from the Canada Cultural Spaces Fund that is managed by Canadian Heritage. The same thing applies to funds for community infrastructures for official language communities.
As for the bilateral agreements with municipalities, and to answer your question more specifically, discussions have to take place with the provinces, of course. Normally, these requests come from the municipalities and provinces. The federal government will be able to discuss them and then approve them. The best thing is of course to ensure that there is a good discussion with the provinces, particularly with Quebec, with whom there is an agreement. Under chapter M-30, we must ensure that we discuss things with the Quebec government from the outset.
That said, I think that this is excellent news. These will be historic investments in cultural infrastructures. Our government has been the first in 10 years that has managed to change the criteria of bilateral agreements with the provinces and territories to allow for the funding of cultural infrastructures. Not only were we able to change the criteria of past programs, but regarding the new programs, we can ensure funding for cultural and recreational infrastructures. The Minister of Sport and Persons with Disabilities, Carla Qualtrough, and myself are very pleased with these new announcements regarding the content of the budget.