Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate being recognized. I'd like to thank our guests for being here today.
Lest we all forget, what prompted all of this was our concern that we're in a global recession, and as a result of trying to do some things that would assist us in getting out of that global recession, we, like other industrialized countries, made the decision to try to help stimulate our economy.
If I have a minute at the end, Mr. Jean would like to say a couple of things. I hope to give him that time.
It is rather interesting. I was trying to think of what the definition of “stimulus” was, and Mr. Cunningham said it best--and I will quote you, sir. You said that if you want to be sure something gets done, you set a deadline. I have not heard any one of our guests say—and I'm delighted you are all here today—that when the municipalities were offered up their projects they did not understand clearly that there was a deadline. Obviously, there is a time deadline for some.
One of the members of our committee made the comment that she was looking for divergence and was surprised that she didn't hear it, but actually nor did I, and I would like to agree with her. I heard Mr. Généreux state that he was very happy that the federal government recognized the importance of infrastructure and was very happy that the federal government invested $4 billion. I heard Mr. Carlton say that infrastructure funding is one of the most effective tools. I heard Mr. Cunningham say not to go back to the 1990s and that John Baird has worked to cut the red tape. Mr. Perras said that hundreds of projects are running. So I agree that the divergence is not there.
I would also say that without the timeliness set for these infrastructure projects, I wonder how long it would take for the cities to spend these dollars. That is the whole point of stimulus, ladies and gentlemen.
I've heard talk about this gas tax format as being the best way to do it, but if that had been the case, there would have been no commitment necessarily from the province and certainly none from the municipalities to be able to create the kind of initiative that in fact we have. What we've been able to do is expand the value of a dollar to three dollars, and that's what's happened as a result of all of the levels of government participating in an unprecedented way.
My fast question for Mr. Cunningham is on the talk of inappropriate funding in ridings across this country. Sir, do you believe that the premiers of Manitoba, Quebec, Ontario, B.C., and Nova Scotia have conspired to help rig federal ridings in terms of stimulus funding?