From what I gather, we want to go fast, and projects in the long, long, long term are not the objective of that fund. We'll see about that in the procedures that will come, but there are so many projects we have on our table that don't need long planning and are ready to go. It could be recreation facilities, arenas, and all these subjects that we will be able to have access to for our members.
From what we gather from the minister, this has to be done very rapidly. We also want to be very rapid, so we urge the minister to cut the red tape, which is what he's saying all the time, and put the shovels in the ground. That's a really good message. We feel that we need to put these funds in rapidly so that we can have buildings to repair and projects that are ready to go. It's not long-term projects that we need. If we have an acknowledgment today, we have to make big plans, with
a lot of planning and environmental requirements, etc. We believe that money should flow quickly to municipal projects that are straightforward, such as road repair, sidewalk repair, waste water systems, and existing buildings. Members have already told us that there are infrastructure projects worth some $14 billion that are ready to start immediately.
The Montreal-Toronto train project is going to take longer than repairing houses that were flooded, a direct result of global warming. Those renovations are easy to accomplish, and do not require anything else than money. They do not require five or six-year planning.
We're very happy to see that there are a great number of projects for the next two years. They are ready to go. All we need is money.