Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Mr. Minister and your staff for appearing before us today.
As you know, public safety, especially in the areas of rail and marine, is a matter of great concern to those of us on the west coast. We've seen some significant derailments. We've seen one significant marine tragedy.
I want to commend you for some of the steps you've already taken to address corrective measures for those who are not complying with our safety requirements, specifically with respect to CN and a number of the derailments that have involved that company. I'm confident in the future going out that the public's perception of rail safety, marine safety, and air safety is going to improve under your leadership.
I'd like to turn the whole discussion back to infrastructure, which is actually part of the main estimates we're discussing. Of course, the main estimates we have before us are actually the ones that are derived from the previous government's decisions and actions, but I'm also curious to discover from you what your future direction is going to be.
In Budget 2006 our government announced a number of significant increases in infrastructure spending. So my first question would simply be, could you highlight a number of those increases in spending in the area of infrastructure? Secondly, what direction do you see infrastructure taking in the next few years? Where do you see us having a requirement to build infrastructure in Canada?