Given my experience, it's true that it was difficult to set the project in motion at some point.
Earlier, you asked whether the community was involved. It's a matter of selling the project and finding people. We had the support of the city of Salaberry-de-Valleyfield in terms of communications, and local newspapers gave us a lot of support. That was a real strength. People really supported the project. When community members saw how their schoolyard would look at the end of the project, some even came to me with envelopes of money. I told them to not bring them to me, as I am a politician, after all. I asked them to bring any money to the school. One fellow even made bird houses to be placed into the trees. He worked very hard on making them. The community was quick to get involved.
As for managing a project of this size, I had no experience with that and no idea of how to manage entrepreneurs. However, Anne Bouthillier, of PRAQ, took over and managed all the work. So I had a lot of support in carrying out this project.
You mentioned that some people specialize in schoolyards. I have no expertise in that area, but we were able to complete such a project. The key to success is to believe in your project and in the benefits for the children. My spouse works at this school and told me that, since we converted the schoolyard, the children's aggressiveness has been reduced by more than half. The children use up a lot of energy in the yard. They talk about trees because they now know their names. They are involved. As my colleagues mentioned here, children's ability to pass on environmental information is considerable. It's sometimes difficult to change the minds of people of a certain age who have always watered their front lawn with a garden hose, but when children talk about this, it works. One of the goals of converting schoolyards is to educate children, so that they can in turn educate parents.
Here is what our project has led to. On the other side of the river, a project is supposed to be set in motion. It was decided that this project would meet LEED standards. So it will be an entirely green project across from the schoolyard. There's really been a series of green projects, simply because we converted one schoolyard—