Thank you.
Thank you for being here, Mr. Minister.
I've looked at the figures and I note that despite the $171 billion infrastructure deficit in Canada, there will be a cut of $5.8 billion over the next five years. This is the figure that came from the Parliamentary Budget Officer. I was hoping to see an increase rather than a decrease in this funding. However, that being said, there's still some money here.
There are only five months left for the municipalities to submit applications to meet the deadline for the construction season, which is April 1. How would you go about negotiating agreements with the provinces and designing the program? How are you going to be able to meet this deadline? The municipalities need to start planning now, since they have to apply on April 1. They have to start planning their projects and they need to know the criteria and some of the areas that you will be considering. How would you expect this to occur, since the time is so tight?