Thank you, Mr. Tweed and Mr. Chair.
I just want to say this. First of all, in response to Mr. Kennedy's comments, it's here in www.buildingcanada-chantierscanada.gc.ca regions. It's all here. You mentioned it wasn't available. It is available on the website. If you can't find it, I'd be happy to help you do that.
I'd like to table that, Mr. Chair—it's not in both official languages—or at least table the first page of it, so that Mr. Kennedy can access the website.
My issue is this. I think the best article I've seen on this particular issue is from the The Record in the Waterloo region, from Gord Hobbs, the director of engineering services at Jennimark Inc. in Cambridge. He explains in this article that first the municipality generates an application for funding, submits it, and awaits approval. That's one month minimum.
Second, the city's engineers specify exactly what work is required and issue tenders to a minimum of three competent contractors. That's another month.
Third, contractors assess the requirements and respond with fixed pricing. That's one more month.
Fourth, the city's engineers review the bids and negotiate changes, and the winner is selected. That takes another month.
Fifth, the selected contractor's engineers design the repairs, meeting all applicable safety codes, and plan the day-to-day work to be performed. That takes two months, minimum.
Sixth, specialty materials and components are ordered, received, and checked for compliance. Add on another two months.
Seventh, machinery and people are scheduled to assemble at a given start date. That takes another month.
Finally, workers start digging.
If we sum up the contributions to delay, as Ignatieff in this case refers to it, we see that it's improbable to have publicly visible progress on any project in less than nine months. Since the stimulus package was announced on January 27 and voted on later by the Liberals who agreed to it, I quote Mr. Hobbs: “it would be a miracle if work had started before October 27th. I think it's remarkable that 12 per cent of this work is already under way! Obviously many people have been working overtime”, referring to our government.
Seven billion dollars has been committed this year so far. The most the Liberal government ever did was less than $3 billion. So $7 billion has been committed already by this government. But the most important issue here is that Mr. Page has to bring forward.... And I think all of you have to recognize that it's amazing, but MPs don't go out and dig. In fact, we don't have anything to do with the implementation of the work. It's the municipalities, it's the provinces, it's the cities, it's the towns, it's the hamlets. It's our partners. We are funding partners. We are not the people who get out there and do the projects. So it is their responsibility.
Is Mr. Page going to make a thousand phone calls and cite himself as the infrastructure secretariat? My question—and I think the real question here today, and the question I want answered by Mr. Kennedy—is who did he represent, who did his office represent themselves to be when they made these phone calls, and who did he call? That's the question I have for him, and I really think, in all honesty, that's a real question. Who did his office represent themselves to be?