Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Premier and members, for being here. It's very much an honour to have you here today. I think it's important for a lot of us to see what the challenges are going to be and how the committee can help, hopefully, in the future as well.
I noted with interest your infrastructure projects. Where I come from in the deep south, so to speak, we have a new bridge process going on and I understand the difficulty of trying to get things done. I've been trying to get a new bridge for a number of years. We have about $1 billion of trade going through my riding. Basically it happens along two kilometres, and this is per day that it takes place, in culmination, depending on what's actually being transported. Despite that magnitude, to get a project going has been difficult for a lot of different reasons. We are moving forward, thankfully for that.
In terms of your projects that you mentioned here, the government has talked about an infrastructure bank and public-private partnerships. I'll be quite frank; I'm biased against them. I look at what we're doing and the new border crossing that we have. You're building a layer of profit in there, especially given the fact that for other border crossings we've actually done grants and bonds, especially when we do them bi-nationally with the Americans, and can raise the funds in a more cost-effective way and pay dividends to citizens. However, in your situation, what are the pros and cons?
I have no agenda within that question. I just think you should know what I feel on it. Does that lend any opportunities or does it create other complications in looking at that model for these types of projects?