Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Welcome to Minister Baird and Secretary of State Merrifield. I'm pleased that you could join us today. Over the years I've noted, Minister Baird, that you're readily available in committees, and I think that's an admirable trait.
Concerning the Building Canada and infrastructure stimulation funds, many questions are still out there about their proposed way of working. Municipal leaders across the country are very concerned as well about some of the conditions attached to them.
In your letter to the mayor of Toronto, you said that “proponents will be required to attest that the projects would not have been built over the next two construction seasons without the federal and provincial funding.”
Their concerns lie with projects identified in these capital plans not being eligible for funding. That's certainly going to put an extra burden on municipalities in bringing forward projects. As well, projects need to be completely finished by 2011, under your proposed rules. This will present difficulties to municipalities in coming forward with plans and projects of a type that is going to be acceptable and will not, as your finance minister..., be clawed back from municipalities through the gas tax in years to come, if they don't follow the regulations.
Perhaps you could give us a bit of an understanding of how the stimulus money for these new projects is being handled.