It in fact wasn't me personally who made the decision; it was a unanimous decision of the Treasury Board to...not as you said. The decision was to approve the project, just requiring that the new city council in 33 days signal their support for it. They, at the end of the day, would be on the hook for the cost overruns, for all the unfunded portions of the project. I read the contract. There are significant amounts of the project that are not funded.
I can tell you that it was not my choice to decide when this came before the board; it was when it was submitted. I found the world as I found it; I didn't choose that it come before the board at this time. It's been going for 150 weeks. It certainly would have been better for it to come before the board not during an election campaign.
We did not put an end to it. It was approved and it did have 33 days.
The board is the ultimate decision-making authority for spending within the federal government. It is not up to the officials to make that decision. At the end of the day, the buck stops with me, with the members of the Treasury Board, as to whether the project would get the green light. It is explicitly our responsibility and not that of the unelected officials within the department to make those decisions.