No, we don't have the same possibilities in Quebec to reserve capital funds. It's totally different.
First of all, I would like to thank the former mayor who is now a member of Parliament from British Columbia. As you were describing how you work in your area, I did feel a little envious.
That being said, we have no Conservative MP or minister in my city; nor is there a Conservative MP or minister from the Montreal region. The work that you did with your municipalities was not all done by the Minister. Mr. Paradis is a very nice man, very dedicated, and someone I really appreciate, but he has a lot on his plate and does not have time to visit the municipalities, other than calling them once on the phone to tell them to get things underway.
Furthermore, you can do all the analysis and make all the comparisons you want between your province and ours. Based on some criteria, you might turn out to be better in five years, but five years from now, we might also be better than you. I don't think we should be comparing what happened in British Columbia with what is occurring now in Quebec.
I don't know what the electoral tradition is in your area. I hope you followed events in the last municipal elections, particularly in the Montreal region. You would have seen for yourself that there was far more disruption than usual this time for town and city councils.
Having said that, I would just like to repeat that we are partners, and what we are asking is to be treated like partners. We acted in good faith, we submitted projects, we took all the appropriate steps to meet the deadline requirement. But now we are to be penalized for the good faith we, as partners, showed our government.
I would say—
If I may say it in English, great cities make great countries.
If you do what is needed to ensure that cities all across the country are healthy, then the country will be healthy as well. If Canadian cities are not healthy, you may think you have solved an accounting problem, but you will not have solved the country's problem.