Thank you very much.
Minister and deputy minister, welcome.
I'll start in English. I asked you a question yesterday in the House about where in the Liberal program the commitment was to actually either privatize public assets, privatize the flow of revenue streams of those public assets, or reinvest in infrastructure through tolls and user fees.
Before you answer, I'd like to review what Paul Wells actually wrote today in the Toronto Star:
The money, if it comes, will help pay for very large infrastructure projects from which investors will expect to generate enough returns to justify their investments.... What sort of returns? Whatever the ingenuity of developers can concoct. Hydro rates and water meter rates, if that's what's getting built. Real estate development along routes rendered more attractive because the roads and rails will be getting a boost. And, yes, road tolls, like on Hwy. 407....
I'd like to understand where in the Liberal platform was the commitment to privatize the assets or the revenue streams or to impose user fees or tolls, because that's what's called a return on investment. Why was it not mentioned during the campaign?
Canadians voted for small deficits to invest in public infrastructure, and right now they're getting larger deficits to pay for the privatization of what they have paid for all these years.