Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, all, for your testimony.
I want to follow up on the last speaker on the question of value. I have two municipalities in my riding; next to Toronto it is suburban, and then it goes further north and becomes rural. Things like broadband, for example, are another major issue in infrastructure. We've talked a lot about transit. When it comes to value, Mr. Macdonald, you spoke about something interesting in regard to the potential increased costs.
If you're just looking at interest rates or borrowing rates, for example, my regional municipality had a AAA credit rating, so we could borrow relatively well. I think about that, and because I have a municipal background, it's interesting. That's not how municipal governments think. They tend to think this is a project and an initiative that they need.
I'll use broadband as the perfect example, because we know that if we can implement this the growth possibilities are endless. Also, if any of our municipalities had to pay for it—and the term my councillor always used to say was that it was with “hundred-cent dollars”—it would be out of the question. But even at a higher interest rate paid for with partners, if it were paid for with partners, and we had 25¢ dollars or 50¢ dollars, that made it much more doable. In the end the project might have had a higher interest rate, but we weren't paying for it alone.
Also, because there is only one taxpayer, if I went to the taxpayers in my community, and they might say, “If you you want this project, and we don't have an infrastructure bank, you'll have a lower interest rate, but we're paying 100% of the cost...”. Or, if there were private investments, the overall project might have a higher interest rate, but the taxpayers would be paying less and wouldn't bear all the risk.
That is part of the value in the price tag I can see in the grand scheme of things, but it's about adding partners and sharing that risk and sharing the costs to make something transformational happen. This isn't a sidewalk project, a park, etc.
I have limited time, so I'll leave it at that and then see if you have thoughts and any differences of opinion on that.