Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My thanks to the witnesses for coming to meet with us today.
Mr. Smith, you surprised me a little. At one point, you mentioned the importance of having the money to meet your commitments. In the entire history of Canada, this is the first time that we are hearing that Canada is not honouring its signature in a financial transaction. I thought that, once the Canadian government's signature was at the bottom of a financial document, the money then followed. That is why your comment surprised me a little.
So let me ask the official from the Department of Finance this question.
Given the significant number of requests for support from other governments, municipalities in particular, why was a non-agent crown corporation specifically created to solve an infrastructure problem, when it would have been possible to use a single-window approach? If that were the case, you would have needed neither to set up an agent crown corporation, nor to make loans and disbursements before expenses. It would not have been necessary to operate with a two-tier or three-tier structure. There would only have been a single structure; it would have been much more economical and you would have had no financing costs.