Thank you, Chair.
Minister, the operations of government are a mystery to most Canadians. They're very convoluted and complex. They're a mystery to most of us at this committee half the time, frankly. We all know now that you can spend the money, and we've helped you with vote 35 to fast-track that spending, but it's a great leap of faith that this spending is actually having the desired results. No Canadian--I don't think any of us here--has even seen a real yardstick that we can measure progress by, and I think that's the frustration that you sense in some of the questioning here and in the House of Commons.
Vote 35 was fairly easy to understand when you stuck to the bricks and mortar. Buildings at universities and I think the Cartier bridge were specifically mentioned in vote 35. That gets people working immediately and it gets money flowing. There are things in vote 35 that are a mystery to me. The Chalk River CANDU reactor is getting $222 million to maintain safe and reliable operations at Chalk River. How do you explain that finding its way into vote 35? What was the fast-tracking urgency associated with that?