Mr. Chair, I question whether the federal government has the right to make that kind of recommendation, since our contracts were municipal and provincial. Unless we have agreement from all levels of government, I'm not sure the federal government has the right.
Effectively what we're asking them to do is break our contract. We had a contract with the provinces that their money would come to the table--one-third--and the municipalities are also part of that contract.
Effectively what we're trying to do is unilaterally break a contract by making this recommendation, and I'm not sure we have the right as a committee to do that without consultation.