Yes, Mr. Carrier, public transit is important to all Canadian communities. The Federation of Canadian Municipalities is extremely happy with the astronomical sum that we have before us today. We are talking about billions of dollars. We must find some way to distribute this funding quickly. It has to be done through the provinces, which is fine with me. It has to be done. We would like the money to be transferred from the federal government to the provinces so that we, the municipalities, can work with the provinces to acquire the required funding.
The Federation of Canadian Municipalities is working with Minister Baird. We met him immediately after he was appointed. As I said earlier, we were quick to meet with Mr. Harper. We invited him to attend our board meeting. There are 72 elected members from all of the provinces and territories in Canada. Mr. Baird was very open. I am convinced that he will come up with some flexible solutions. From what I understood, he will need extra staff, but I don't think that is necessary: he simply needs to send the money to the provinces. It will get to us more quickly that way. I think that we currently have some influence over the Canadian government. When I was president of the Union des municipalités du Québec, we tried to influence the government to step up the contributions towards the municipalities. I think we are a good partner. We know how to operate on the ground, how to provide services to our citizens. Moreover, there is the infrastructure side, where the need is extraordinary.
With respect to mass transit, we prefer to use the word “collectif” in French rather than refer to public transit, because small communities want to have a common service, in this case, transportation. This means that people could travel from the Lac-Mégantic region to Sherbrooke, for example, where they could then use the Sherbrooke transit system. A collective type of system is all encompassing.
We have buildings to construct, commitments and financial services to offer our transportation companies, so that these services can be provided to our citizens. As a Canadian federation, we have an important role to play. I am proud to be the president of the federation, because we represent the collective interests of tiny communities as well as those of Toronto, which is Canada's biggest city.