Asset management is a key part of understanding what your needs are. In the town of LaSalle in my riding, we just celebrated the ribbon cutting for a new municipal building, which involved gas tax funding in the neighbourhood of about a million dollars. I asked the mayor what the oldest asset is in the town of LaSalle now, with this brand new facility, and he said it is a recreation complex built in 2005. They began years ago with an asset management plan and have consistently sought out opportunities, both from prioritizing their existing tax base and from seeking out leverage opportunities in order to renew their assets. That's critical.
Ms. Ballem, you mentioned that some of the important indicators in the relationship are that the funding be clear, long term, and offer predictability and a streamlined process. I remember that in the early days—I have a little bit of experience now, being at this for 11 years—we had the original building Canada plan, which was a seven-year plan of about $34 billion when you put all of the elements together.
We then renewed with the new building Canada plan, and it's a 10-year plan with $75 billion. Now there's a new public transit fund that looks out at five years at this particular point. CUTA was here to explain how the number was arrived at in defining a federal share over five years, ramping up with the timing of projects coming on stream from communities.
Additionally, I would add that probably the criteria I heard Mr. Vrbanovic refer to, at least implicitly, is flexibility in how priorities are determined. The federal government is not telling you what the priority is for Vancouver versus Kitchener, for example. Is that a welcome direction now? Is that the type of partnership...? Of course, it's something that can be built on over time as well.