Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Good morning, Minister and deputy minister.
I was mayor of a small municipality. I don't want to engage in partisanship. I know there are election plans in the air, but that's not very important to me. If I correctly understand what you and my colleague said earlier, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities is seeking $123 billion. If we divide that amount among the three orders of government, the federal, provincial and municipal, we come up with a figure of $41 billion. In your address, you said that $17.6 billion was budgeted for municipal infrastructure. So we're $23.4 billion short.
The government said that there would be a surplus of approximately $69.5 billion over the next five years. If the government didn't say it, the Bloc québécois did. Whatever the case may be, someone said it. In my opinion, improving infrastructure related to quality of life is the best way to affect everyone, from birth until death. Investing everything in infrastructure, water and sewers, for example, would benefit all members of society.
I would like to know why we're short $23.4 billion. I don't understand why the government and officials don't assign this to the municipalities and provincial governments. It seems to me that would be a good initiative. It would be good for everyone. No one could say that you were more generous with one than with another.