Thank you for that question, Mr. Vidal.
We really believe that the monetization of government transfers, be it a new source of funding or an existing source of funding, will really be a big game-changer when it comes to closing this infrastructure gap. I actually became aware of a report that was done just recently by AFN and CIRNAC together that indicated this infrastructure gap is at $349.2 billion. That's a staggering number. There's no way this government, which is funding infrastructure right now, will be able to do that in the next few years without an innovative solution. I really believe that the concept of leveraging means we can build more today than tomorrow with tomorrow's inflated dollars. Inflation does really eat away at funding amounts that are static.
In the recent budget we requested a budget ask of $200 million to start the monetization project, and $200 million annually over a 20-year period would create in excess of 12,000 homes, for sure. That makes a big difference on our reserves. Also, on replacing diesel generators, the idea of monetizing existing expenditures on diesel would almost be cost-neutral to replacing the diesel generators that exist in our communities right now.
Those are a few examples. We didn't get the budget ask. We will continue to do that. I'm sure at some point in time that monetization will happen, but I just don't know when. The concept is sound. It works. Every other government does that.