Mr. Chair, Vice-Chair, ladies and gentlemen members of Parliament, thank you.
The UMQ, or Union des municipalités du Québec, was happy to accept your invitation to take part in the work of the committee. This is a priority for all the municipalities of Quebec that are pursuing the efforts they undertook in the past few years.
Since its inception in 1919, the UMQ has represented municipalities of all sizes, from all regions of Quebec. Its mission is to exercise leadership at the national level to promote effective and independent local governments, as well as support the fundamental role played by municipal elected representatives.
Our members, who represent more than 80% of the population of Quebec, are grouped together in affinity caucuses, that is to say local municipalities, central ones, regional cities, large cities and metropolitan municipalities.
We consider the infrastructure to be a tripartite responsibility. Whether to stimulate our economy in the short term, lay the foundation for a long-term sustainable economy or create attractive living environments, investments in infrastructure are important levers to ensure our prosperity.
In that sense, the efforts made over the past few years must be maintained and remain a priority. That priority must be upheld and sustained by the three orders of government, since it is in everyone's interest that we offer proper conditions to further a strong and sustainable economy.
Over the past few years the UMQ has done a lot of work on municipal infrastructures, and the starting point was an exhaustive study carried out in 2012 by Deloitte and E&B Data, a study that allowed us to assess municipal infrastructure needs.
The findings were very clear: municipal infrastructure as a whole is an imposing heritage consisting of assets that total more than $200 billion in value, but the municipal infrastructure deficit today has reached $34 billion. So, the needs are great. In order to rehabilitate and maintain these assets in good condition, the three orders of government must increase their tripartite investment by $3 billion, even though we are currently investing $4.3 billion annually. In fact, the municipalities are bearing an unfair burden, since they shoulder 76% of the net cost of financing municipal infrastructure.
This diagnosis shows the extent of the challenge we face to renew our public infrastructure, in a context where the state of public finances makes our decisions all the more difficult.
The study also showed that government infrastructure programs had an important impact on slowing the growth of the deficit, as of 2008. Whereas the deficit was increasing by more than 5% a year up till 2007, the programs put in place as of 2008 stabilized the deficit and reduced its annual growth, which is now around 1.5%.
These programs give results and consolidate our partnership, but we still have a long way to go and we must all maintain the pace. In that sense, the federal government's new long-term infrastructure plan is an important measure, since it will allow us to maintain our efforts and continue the catch-up work begun over these last years.
However, the investments are not on a par with what is required. That is why the sunset clause in the New Building Canada Plan which provides for a reassessment of the situation in five years is an excellent one.
The level set out in the new long-term plan must be considered a floor and not a ceiling.