Thank you very much to our witnesses for appearing here today.
It was former General Rick Hillier who referred to the period from 1995 to 2005 as a decade of darkness when it came to the lack of military spending by the federal government of the day. Provinces will remember that the same decade saw significant multi-billion dollar slashes to health care and education. Could it be possible that it was also a decade of darkness when it came to federal participation and funding—direct funding—of infrastructure?
We know that from 1995 to 2000, under the national airports policy, airports were downloaded without dollars from the federal government. We know that CN was privatized. We know that the national marine policy of the day divested ports, again without dollars to flow. I think it explains....
I think, Mr. Romoff, that you used the term “underinvestment”.
Mr. Carlton, I think you referred to it as “a dip”. I have a handy chart here for 1990 out to 2022. This shows the dip you're talking about. It looks more like a crater, actually, when it comes to responsibility for that.
What are the effects of that underinvestment crater in the federal government on municipalities, this downloading of significant amounts of infrastructure and federal responsibility without dollars to flow? Is that what in part explains the infrastructure deficit that became the source of a lot of conversation around I think the mid-2000s?