I won't presume to speak to the inner workings of Infrastructure Canada. It's beyond my expertise, clearly.
I would share your observation that dollars spent today are far more effective than dollars spent later. The point of the funding is not the spreadsheet; it's about actual, tangible assets creating wealth and opportunity. This is even challenged, even if they were on schedule—and with all due respect, even if your previous building Canada were on schedule.... We're still seeing those peaks and spikes, which are very difficult for us to manage.
Anything that would flatten that curve out would get more dollars into the economy quickly in the short-term stimulus, but probably more important are the benefits that last 10, 20, 30, 50, even 100 years, long after my members have gone, long after the constructors have gone, and these assets are in service.
Also, there is the economic consequence. You lose effectiveness of the investments as well if you have a doldrum, and then everybody is competing at once as we run up this ramp. It's not unique to the federal government. If somebody can figure out how to flatten out these curves and make them continuous, they should put that in a bottle and sell it. Lots of people would buy it.
What we're looking for is consistency, some level of predictability, as much as one can. As professional services, we can't put people in a filing cabinet and wait a few years while things are delayed. We have to make decisions that allow us to keep our businesses open and our doors open.
Our municipalities have to be able to manage this. I think this is often forgotten. The municipalities have to come up with the matching contributions in many of these programs. If all the availability for the assistance shows up at the same time, then we may not be able to get some projects out the door.
As I say, I am—