Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I thank you all for being here today.
Since I am the member for Brossard—Saint-Lambert, this project is clearly very important to me and it has been for a very long time. During my first term, from 2008 and 2011—when I was part of the opposition—I spoke out a number of times in the House specifically to ask when the bridge would be replaced. For us, the people who use the bridge, it was no longer a matter of repairing it, but rather of replacing it. We were seeing it. It was visible to the naked eye. We were passing underneath and could see that concrete was falling down from all over. About every six months, reports by all sorts of independent firms were published, exposing the progression in the deterioration pretty clearly.
For someone who lives in Brossard and who, like me, uses the Champlain Bridge very regularly—I cannot say that it's every day because I am here during the week, but almost every day—it was clear that the bridge had needed tremendous attention for a number of years. Granted, there had been talk of repairs for a number of years, but people had already started to talk about replacing it in 2008.
Mr. Ferguson, did your audit help you identify the reason behind the reticence, between 2008 and 2011—during my term as member—to accept the fact that it was time to replace the bridge?