Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thomas, for being here.
I'm not quite sure if my NDP colleague who just spoke understood how Canada's economic action plan, the infrastructure stimulus program, worked, because it was actually the municipalities that recommended the projects they wanted funded. I know that in Mississauga there was a unanimous vote by the mayor and members of council as to which 122 projects would be funded in the city of Mississauga.
So when they talk about pet political projects, they weren't the federal government's pet political projects at all. It was municipalities, which understand the infrastructure on the street and what they need in their communities, that recommended to the provincial and federal governments what should be funded. Let's get the facts straight on how that program worked.
Do you support a federal role in funding infrastructure for capital costs, for operating costs, for both, or for neither? Where do you folks draw the line? I think you did indicate that some infrastructure should be funded at the federal level of government. Do you believe the federal government should fund ongoing operating costs for transit systems or just contribute toward capital costs?