Thank you Mr. Chair.
First of all, I just want to thank the representatives for the deputations, and also, through you, I think we want to express our appreciation for the work municipalities have done and are doing. We heard from your related group, the Union of Quebec Municipalities, last week. It's very clear that there is an extreme amount of hard work being done. We were reminded that there is a difference. Even though this is a partnership between levels of government—at least that's the aspiration—there's a difference between signing cheques and actually making the projects happen. I think we realize that a very large part of that is happening this year, that your municipalities are working very hard to make that happen. I think you should understand that I, at least, on behalf of our party, appreciate that, and I'm sure it's shared by others in this room. What we want to find out today and in subsequent discussion is how we can help that. How can we not have federal rules get in the way of the effectiveness of municipalities?
I know that the British Columbia association did a survey, and I have a few questions about that in a second. I just want to double-check something. Did the Federation of Canadian Municipalities conduct its own survey? Is it in charge of data that give us the national picture?