It might have been useful to add that if we could have, but we can't. You have ruled the amendment out of order. Let's deal with things as they are. We would have liked to do that in line with provincial priorities and the maintenance of project control, but we can't.
What we can do, however, is not impose an obligation on the City of Montreal to find amounts that it does not have in order to access federal funding. Let's at least take away what we can take away. It's like saying that, because you cannot repair both the doors and windows of a house in which both need to be repaired, you won't at least repair the windows. We could repair one defective element in this bill. If I understand correctly, the Bloc's argument is that, since we cannot repair two things, we will not even repair the one thing we can repair. I don't think that argument holds water.
What we should do, rather, is help the City of Montreal. I know that is not the Bloc's first concern. I would also like to help the City of Toronto. Mayor Miller has been very clear on this—he needs to have the money flow as well.
So, Mr. Chairman, I think we have to do everything we can to make sure the money actually flows. Mayor Miller of Toronto has been very clear on this matter, that he won't be able to come up with the funds to match the federal funds. A lot of the provinces are in the same boat. So once again we're faced with the following situation, where the federal government is putting up a large number, saying that it represents Canada's stimulus spending to meet the G7 and G20 requirements, but they're making it conditional; there are strings attached, and we think that's a mistake. What we're trying to do with clause 301 is to remove some of those strings to make it possible for cities like Montreal and Toronto to have access to that money.
And I'll say in ending that it's very clear from the fact that a lot of this money goes to the current Minister of Transport, Mr. Baird, and—I hope this doesn't come as a shock to you—he is just slightly partisan. I know this might come as a bit of a surprise, but he's ever so mildly partisan, and he has made it clear before certain groups, including groups that work in areas such as urban transit, that they'd better come from an area that has some Conservative MPs if they want to see any of the money. So with this slush pot they're putting together, we could, at the very least, make sure some of it flows to the cities, like Montreal and Toronto, that won't be able to match the funds if we don't make this change.
That's why we maintain our suggestion, Mr. Chairman, that clause 301 be amended as we suggested, that is to say, that clause 301 be amended to take away the requirement for cities or the provinces to match the funds, and that the money spelled out in clause 301 actually flows to infrastructure projects in conformity with the provincial-territorial infrastructure base funding program.