Mr. Sabia, we are very pleased to see a man of your calibre join this brain trust in order to help the government in its actions. We are not opposed to the creation of an advisory committee made up of people as distinguished as you. Of course, it is up to us to assess your recommendations—for recommendations they are—and to pass judgment on them. A few months ago, you specifically recommended establishing an infrastructure bank, a suggestion that the government promptly endorsed.
Technically, we are not opposed to the principle, but why would we need a bank like that in Canada when another tool already exists—not in such a refined form as an investment bank, we acknowledge—by the name of PPP Canada?
PPP Canada is a fund set up some time ago by a government of the same political hue as mine—though that is not the point I wanted to make here—and which allows private investment. It also allows entities like yours to invest in infrastructure. To my knowledge, Canada has never shut the door to foreign investment. Those are the objectives that the investment bank is working towards.
As I told you, we are not against the principle, but why create this bank, given that it is a tool we already have?
Another of our concerns is that, for five years, we are going to create a new entity and free up $15 billion for it. So that money will not be available to meet the immediate infrastructure needs that you highlighted earlier. There really is a need.
In a word, why create a new entity to deal with infrastructure when we already have PPP Canada, which could perhaps do with some adjustments, but would do the job very well?