Thank you, and thank you all for very interesting presentations. I think since my time is limited I will focus mainly on issues of research and public transit. Certainly, in my riding I often say public transit is second in importance only to health care. Many of the citizens suffer from traffic gridlock, environmental concerns--this is in Markham. So I totally agree with Ms. Williams that it's extremely important.
But if money is limited, you can't do everything. The previous budget having been very rich, I fear that for the next budget money will be quite limited and choices will have to be made. You've really advocated both of two approaches to public transit, the first approach being tax credits of various kinds to encourage use, and the second approach being direct government investment to support transit.
In my riding I've pushed for and succeeded in getting additional funding for various kinds of public transit over the years, and I think that's been very effective. I'm skeptical about tax credits, nice though they are. If your primary objective is more public transit, the evidence, for example, is that on this path 95% of the people would be using it anyway. So 95% of the money goes into the pockets of people who are there anyway and has no effect on public transit. So I'd like to do both, but not having funds for both, I think the priority should be direct investment or support by the government for public transit investments.
So my question for you is--I don't know if you agree with me or not--if you had the choice of just one or other of these two approaches and not both, what would be your choice?