Certainly.
I'll just underline very quickly the gas tax rebate, the GST rebate, and under Building Canada the base funding. Under Building Canada, there is great flexibility as far as timing is concerned.
In the design of the approximately $12 billion worth of stimulus funds, we wanted to basically stimulate economic growth, stimulate job creation in the short term. We have three fundamental principles. They're not complicated. Some object; some are not in agreement. I would be dishonest if I didn't say that.
One is that we want it to be a new project. We don't want to say, if city X was already going to do something this year or next, that they simply take out some of their money and put in other money, because then we wouldn't be creating any new jobs. We want to create new jobs, so we want it to be a new project, something that otherwise wouldn't be going ahead anyway.
Two, we want to create jobs over the next 24 months with this program. We know from the past 25 years that there can be great...particularly with big projects. Even in building a subway it can take two years from the time you get the yes on the money to when you get the shovel in the ground. We don't want to simply say to the unemployed that they have to wait two years, so we're looking for projects that would start this year and be completed by the end of next fiscal year, which is March 2011, 23 or 24 months away.
The third fundamental point is that we get matching funds whenever possible. We won't get them in every case, but if we can take $12 million and turn it into $24 million or into as much as $36 million by going one third, one third, one third with the provinces and municipalities, we can create up to three times as many jobs and up to three times as much economic spinoff.
Many municipalities that are having concerns.... I'll give you an example. As of noon today in Ontario, we've received 474 project proposals from 69 municipalities, totalling about half a billion dollars. That shows that a lot of municipalities are ready to go, have funds matched, and can meet the criteria.
Building Canada is also on the table for those projects that would be longer-term, that would go beyond March 2011.