Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I would like to thank the witnesses for being here today.
I would like to ask some questions about the Office of Infrastructure.
Recently, the Office of Infrastructure of Canada requested another $709 million for the infrastructure stimulus fund. This was to complete some projects that had been identified in 2009, and some in 2010, I'm sure. Could you explain what happens?
I know that the deadline was extended past October 31 of this year of 2011. What were some of the factors that would have contributed to the postponement or the delaying of the deadline to complete these projects?
I know that in some of the discussions I've had with provincial and municipal counterparts in Ontario and in Toronto, there was a certain amount of fatigue on the part of the provincial and municipal counterparts, in that they couldn't get the funding ready and so on. Could you maybe describe whether that was a contributing factor? Or were there other factors that led to this extension of the deadline?