Thank you. There were a lot of questions there, so I'll try to unpack a few of them.
Fundamentally, your first question, I think, is about leadership. In terms of leadership, I think the federal government has shown tremendous leadership, probably starting in 2000, in terms of transit infrastructure funding. There was a time in Canada when it was completely unthinkable that the Government of Canada would be a partner with municipalities in their transit projects. I remember that when I was a student at York University in 1988 and they were talking about the Spadina subway extension--that's how long these projects take--it was unthinkable at that time that the Government of Canada would be a partner in a project like that. Well, not only is the federal government a partner in a project like that, but I think more and more it becomes unthinkable that the Government of Canada would not be a partner in a project like that going forward.
The way that the landscape has changed in a little over a decade has simply been remarkable. Again, that's really a credit to the fact that the infrastructure issue, public transit in particular, has risen up to the fore.
The second thing I would say is that in terms of the current suite of programs, public transit again in terms of funding tends to dominate. Of the Building Canada fund, of the major infrastructure component, some 40% of that has gone to public transit across Canada.
So in terms of leadership, I think it is very clear that the Government of Canada has been showing leadership in terms of financing. In terms of other kinds of leadership, that becomes a more difficult question. As you know, public transit is largely delivered through municipalities. There are some exceptions. Metrolinx in Toronto is a regional board run by the province. Generally speaking, though, municipalities run transit systems. To that extent, it's very difficult for the Government of Canada to engage in a comprehensive planning suite because the needs are very different across Canada.
For example, in Manitoba there are some 200 communities, and only four of those have transit. Each of those four systems has very different transit needs. The needs of a Winnipeg in terms of transit are very different from the needs of a Brandon in terms of transit. It is very difficult for the Government of Canada to try to impose a kind of uniformity.
So I think what the government has done is probably reflective of the nature of Canadian federalism, which is to say the government has shown leadership in funding and in financing, but it has not in turn imposed certain types of transit-specific measures that must be undertaken by provinces or municipalities.