Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am going to split my time with Ms. Morin.
Minister, welcome to the committee and thank you for joining us. Since we don't have a lot of time and because I'd like to leave some time for Ms. Morin, I must challenge you to answer both of my questions in three minutes.
My first question has to do with the funding of infrastructure programs. Clearly, some wonderful projects were not funded because the money had run out, because it had either been spent or been committed elsewhere, as you explained numerous times.
Are you at all able to take money that has been committed but not spent—say because a project was not completed—and reinvest that amount in infrastructure, rather than handing it over to the Treasury? That is my first question.
Now for my second question. I repeatedly heard you mention your concern as far as respecting taxpayers' capacity to pay. The question I have with respect to the Champlain Bridge, but other projects as well, is this. To my mind, the Government of Canada probably has the best borrowing leverage out there. So how do you explain that a PPP will do a better job of serving taxpayers or respecting their capacity to pay than a publicly funded scheme?