Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thanks to the committee for inviting myself and TRIP here today.
The Road and Infrastructure Program of Canada, or TRIP Canada, is a federation of eleven provincial road building and heavy construction associations from across the country, representing over 2,000 member companies. The many things our members build include Canada's core and large strategic infrastructure.
Mr. Chair, I think it's only right to start off by acknowledging the great strides that the federal government has made over the past two years in infrastructure investment.
About this time last year, I sat before this committee urging the government to continue reinvesting in Canada's physical infrastructure, with a particular emphasis on and need for a national highway program.
In response, in Budget 2006, the government introduced a $2.4 billion highway and infrastructure fund and announced additional investments of $2.2 billion in the municipal rural infrastructure fund and $2 billion in the Canada strategic infrastructure fund.
Of course, this was on top of the $5 billion in gas tax revenues transferred to municipalities for municipal infrastructure that was announced by the previous government in Budget 2005.
These announcements, Mr. Chair, are very good news for Canadians, and I think the past two governments deserve kudos for these investments, particularly the highway program, which was long overdue.
In fact, Mr. Chair, on that particular announcement, we're already starting to see results. Three days ago, the Government of Manitoba announced that over the next two years their highway program will amount to $300 million, which is a record level of investment and clearly a result of new federal dollars.
However, these numbers are misleading. In general, the funds are spread out over five years and, consequently, the infrastructure networks risk deteriorating even more over the longer-term period. TRIP Canada is asking that these funds be disbursed more quickly, given the sample we have presented in our brief.
Further, in order to provide stability and guaranteed long-term funding to other levels of government, we are asking that a minimum funding threshold be established for each of the existing infrastructure programs.
In the same vein, the provinces, municipalities and our members have for many years asked the federal government for predictable long-term funding. Consequently, we are asking the federal government to ensure that infrastructure programs guarantee long-term funding to the other levels of government. It goes without saying that the provinces and the municipalities must also play a role in this area. They must be able to present long-term investment plans indicating how the money they receive from the federal government will be spent on infrastructure.
It is almost impossible for construction industries to plan for their labour needs and investment decisions for a given year, if they do not have a better idea of which infrastructure project the provinces and municipalities intend to invest in. If these companies could refer to longer-term plans, they would be in a better position to make enlightened business decisions.
The last item I wish to raise, Mr. Chair, is the issue of a commitment to the principle of non-preferential procurement. TRIP Canada strongly believes that all Canadians have the right to bid on infrastructure projects involving federal dollars. However, there have been some recent examples where orders of government have used infrastructure dollars to reward political allies.
As I think the chair of this committee knows very well, the best example was in a recent labour market agreement involving the Manitoba floodway project, where there was a clear union-friendly policy surrounding that project—which, I might add, was a project involving significant federal dollars.
Now let me be clear that our concern with these policies is not with unions or any other group. Our concern is that preferential procurement policies add significant costs to a project and are inherently unfair. So we are asking the federal government to include in its agreements with the provinces a clause guaranteeing that provinces will not use preferential procurement policies.
Mr. Chair, time is short today, so I'll conclude my remarks there.
I invite committee members to browse through our brief for other recommendations. TRIP Canada is confident that the recommendations contained in our brief build on the very commendable progress made by the federal government over the past two years.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.