Thank you, Mr. Chai.
Thank you, gentlemen, for appearing before us again on this very important issue. I can tell you that there are many people across Canada who are looking forward to these amendments or new legislation coming forward--especially municipalities.
Just so I understand why you're proposing seven amendments, as opposed to a wholesale review of the act, it's my understanding that it's an issue of timing. As you know, our government has committed $33 billion in infrastructure money over the next seven years. Any obstacle that stands in the way of getting that money delivered is going to cost the country significantly.
In the last two years we've passed a number of pieces of legislation--for example, the bridges and tunnels, and the aeronautics provisions. Those provisions go back many years, perhaps to the year 2000 or 2001, under previous Liberal governments. There were various iterations along the way, but they never were actually passed, simply because Parliament ran out of time. Now we're in a minority government situation--the government could fall at any time--and there is no guarantee that there will be a majority government the next time around.
Am I correct in assuming that the purpose for bringing forward these seven amendments is to speed up the process so we can address some of those critical infrastructure needs in Canada right now?