You're right. For me, when we came up with the program's design and architecture, the challenge was to be able to meet the needs of the smaller communities. There are smaller communities in my riding, there are in yours as well, as there are in that of Mr. Laframboise. There are smaller communities of 2,000 to 8,000 souls across the country. Those small municipalities must pay exactly the same costs, the same professional fees.
When the Government of Quebec asks the municipalities to install a water supply and sewer system, to purify waste water and to provide drinking water, they pay the same cost. When they do business with an engineering firm, they pay the professional fees.
We tried to readjust. In our parameters, we felt the limit of 250,000 inhabitants for small projects was unreasonable. It seems to me the City of Gatineau, which has 249,000 souls, can pay that, but the municipalities of Maniwaki, Fort-Coulonge or Montebello perhaps don't have the same resources to do so. We lowered the threshold and said it would be 100,000 inhabitants. We retained the same fund and we said that this program would be aimed at small communities of 100,000 inhabitants.
We also made it so the requirements, for local roads, for example, were lower than for a larger city, not in terms of construction, but in terms of compliance with requirements. We found resources, we spoke with the small municipalities, with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, which has a caucus of small municipalities. We had the same discussion with Mr. Généreux.
I went to Saguenay—Lac-St-Jean, I met with the mayors, and we had this discussion. You have to respect commitments, which are just as important at that level as they are elsewhere. We readjusted our program based on all that.
There's also the gasoline tax. Instead of doling it out in dribs and drabs, as the Liberals did, we extended the share of the gasoline tax to its maximum, as a result of which, in the Quebec Outaouais, for example, there will be twice as much over the next seven years as what was announced .