I think the two are linked. I referred to the infrastructure projects, many of which are important and have been successful. Some of these projects could not have happened if there weren't a significant federal infusion of funds.
I'm looking at ways in which there can be an ongoing framework for providing resources—not only infrastructure funds but also expertise and capabilities to the provinces and the municipalities.
It's one thing to have a grant to build new transit infrastructure. If you're building a highway bridge or a road, then the operating costs are absorbed by the users, because they own the vehicles and pay the maintenance costs on them. Then there's snowplowing and road maintenance. But with transit systems it's quite different. When you build a transit system, you're committing yourself to a high labour cost. That has to be covered by the operating agency, usually a municipality. The cost of transit drivers is one of the largest costs in managing a transit system. And federal policies may be significant here. For example, I talked right at the beginning about policies on driver hours, which can have an effect on what it costs to operate these systems. It's the same with the fuel costs incurred by the municipalities. These costs must be managed, over and above the costs of the infrastructure. We need frameworks to address these costs.