Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to all the witnesses for being with us today. It's a pleasure for us to be in Edmonton.
I'd like to start with a brief comment on the social policy, principally related to Success By 6 and the Edmonton Social Planning Council. Then I'd like to focus a bit on infrastructure, drawing in both Vivian Manasc and the mayor.
On social policy and child support, we are entirely committed to early learning and child care. You say the 2005 program should be brought back. We haven't released our platform yet, but something like that will be there, you can be sure.
On child support, we certainly featured that in the last election platform. I can't tell you what's coming up, but I definitely agree that the non-refundable child tax credit is bad. It should be refundable. But I'm also concerned about affordability and the size of the deficit, and the proposal we have, of a $7.5-billion-a-year increase in spending, and 2014, is not on, from my point of view, given the fiscal conditions of the country.
On infrastructure, I really enjoyed the mayor's presentation. I think it's exactly the same point of view that I have and that the Liberal Party has. But I'd like to try to address both of you, because it seems to me that what the government's done is the worst of both worlds. It's a hodgepodge of things. It's not strategic. At the same time, the money doesn't get out.
I think we have two priorities. One is to be strategic and the other is to get the money out. I would have suggested that the infrastructure funding be broken into two components. One is through the gas tax mechanism. All the mayors have been pushing for that. We in the Liberal Party have been pushing for that throughout, because the money would have gotten out faster, the cities would have had control, and shovels would have been in the ground many months ago, instead of what we have today, when we find that only 12% of the projects are actually on the ground.
The second component of this, which relates to 2017--I really liked your cultural facilities point--should be longer-term and more strategic.
So one part of it would be quick and deal with the jobs issue and still be useful, because the cities would decide, and the second part would be longer-term. We can't be only concerned about pencil-ready; we have to be concerned about shovel-ready, at least for that first component.
First to you, Ms. Manasc. What do you think of what I've just said? Is it consistent with what you said?