Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I can assure committee members.... I just came from a previous committee where the Conservatives and the Liberals added late witnesses and they extended a meeting. Subsequent to that, there are mayors of those municipalities who have already attended those meetings without resolutions from the council and will not have resolutions when they appear before that committee. So there's no reason to apologize for the fact that you're here without a resolution.
Now I want to move forward on some of the issues. It's important to get to some of the particulars here. It is correct that this legislation will allow for this port authority, Toronto in particular, and others, to apply for $2.1 billion in gateway funds. Those funds could be drawn in competition versus other infrastructure projects like the Windsor-Detroit area and other types of east-west and north-south infrastructure.
Second, it is true in this situation with Toronto, from documents that have been submitted to this committee, that it will be able to borrow $27 million and also be able to carry nearly $14 million in long-term debt.
Also, what's pertinent what we're hearing today with this is another answer to a question I had in terms of land use policy. And this is a quote from the document that we have here. “The policy initiative is intended to facilitate and expedite the effective use of existing or newly acquired properties through leases or licences to third parties”--which may be effective in some places, but in others, where there's conflict with the current situation, there is not that type of provision in this bill to significantly help those different municipalities deal with the situation.
So my question to the witnesses here today is, if this is allowed, in terms of additional moneys to be borrowed to be able to have long-term debt to compete for federal infrastructure funds, in the type of situation right now, will it worsen or heighten the problems in your municipality in Toronto, in this particular instance? And in general, do you think it might create conflict in other regions?