Anyway, congratulations to them. We've seen many of those examples coming in ahead of time. That's great news, and congratulations.
In November, for example, there will be a discussion, by mostly big city mayors. It's being held in Saskatoon. The mayor of Saskatoon has called a meeting. A lot of the big city mayors are going to be there to talk about exactly what you're talking about: What's the long-term strategy? How do we work together?
Transport Canada will have representation there to observe what's going on. I have also talked to the FCM. While the FCM is supportive, they understand it's not just a big city issue. They're saying maybe we should think bigger than the big cities, and I concur. Infrastructure is important in big cities, but it's equally as important in small towns. While our needs may be different, infrastructure investment of all kinds needs long-term planning.
I think they're on to something. The provinces already do this. They develop a long-term plan already; they have identified their needs. And they are typically the ones that have to determine that jurisdictionally.
We're a funding agent, but we're not picking the priorities. We're helping. We're observing. We're giving our experience in best practices and what's working elsewhere in the country. So we can contribute to that.
To get back to your first point, I think that discussion is already happening. I think it will happen more, and I think it's a good discussion. I think the lesson for all of us is on the cooperative side. Regardless of individual projects or whether you like the signage or not, what taxpayers like to see in between elections is people downing their political tools and showing they can work together. When you do that, everybody benefits.
In fact some of the early friction, when people were trying to find their way, soon disappeared. Each jurisdiction found out--all of us found out, I'm not picking on anyone here--that the taxpayers were saying get that behind you, we've got a crisis on our hands, all three governments work together. If there's something to be learned in that, I think we should take note. All of us should do that. We'll have an electoral fight when we need to, but let's do the necessary infrastructure investment while we can.
Even better than that is the experience we've had with the gateways. The gateway experience, and I can speak most closely about the Asia-Pacific gateway, is not only three levels of government, it's regional governance, port authorities, railways, airports, private sector, highways people, truckers associations. It's everybody sitting around a table as big as this saying it's not just about money; it's about fluidity and how we keep this line moving.
When I was in China, the word that came back from everybody, from the chairman of Costco, to some of the biggest companies in the world, was that they know when they ship...even if they're going to Chicago, it's two to three days quicker to go through Canada than the United States of America. That's because they appreciate what's happening on the Asia-Pacific gateway.
Again, that's not attributed to just one government; it's a full court press of every private and public sector possible saying what's the quickest way to get a container to Chicago and what can we do as part of that? That why the business community and overseas investors say they need to do business with Canada.
You show me that and we'll be there in spades.