As of today, I understand all our invoices, 100%, are paid. Any one that was more than 30 days ago has been paid. That includes the entire gas tax transfer, the GST rebate, that goes to municipalities for infrastructure. Some of the initiatives we pay on reimbursement, as we get an invoice from provinces.
One of the challenges we have, for example, is on the base funding. There is $25 million available to each province. They can request it this year, or they can request it next year, or they can request it in 2014. One premier gave me the required one-page letter. It was the premier for Mr. Bevington's riding. He gave me his request for approval for his base funding. It was approved within three hours and the cheque forthwith issued.
In many provinces we have not got that request; for example, our home province of Ontario. They have not put in the request, so we haven't funded the money.
Many of the initial projects--I'll use the example of the Spadina subway--have a significant amount of engineering work, a significant amount of environmental work. They weren't able to proceed right away. They took two years. I understand they are about to break ground, so the invoices will all be paid within 30 days. That's our commitment.
We have come forward with an action plan to get at some of the regulatory burdens. We're also reducing some of the bureaucratic burdens so that projects can proceed. In most cases we're not holding the shovel. Obviously, having said that, we wouldn't be bringing forward a five-point action plan to speed this up if we were satisfied with the progress we're making today. This year we'll have spent a record amount in Canadian history on infrastructure. That, in my judgment, is not enough. We'll be spending even more next year.