Thank you.
As I say, we're very pleased at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, over this last period of time, to have this gas tax fund in place. Municipalities really depend on that. It can be budgeted for every year in regard to the number of dollars. One suggestion we made today is that it be indexed.
There are other programs that have been improved over the years. As I mentioned earlier, a lot of municipalities got involved in a number of the programs. The infrastructure programs have changed over the years, with different names on them, if you will, but this is one that the Federation of Canadian Municipalities really wants to keep in place. As well, for other programs, we would like to see a national transportation policy.
As our CEO mentioned, our main issue right now is to maintain the programs we have. We don't want to get back into the downloading of the nineties. We paid the price for that, as was mentioned, with our bridges, our roads, and our streets. We want to continue working with the government on the environment, rural Canada, and the north. Our economy needs strong communities and cities in order to survive and be strong.
A few months ago, we released a report on rural Canada. I think most of you MPs saw that and read it and saw how important it is for rural Canada to be strong as well.
Anyway, we're pleased with the gas tax fund. It is permanent. As for any of the other programs that we talked about, hopefully they'll get etched in stone in some way, shape, or form so that they'll be permanent programs. I know that on the new regulations for the waste-water systems, we made our presentation, and we would strongly like to see a funding mechanism put in place whereby this can be cost-shared, because a lot of municipalities cannot afford it.