On the reasons for the delays, again, we did not specifically request that information from departments and agencies. That said, we have had conversations with provincial governments. We can also point to the historical track record and potential challenges of the federal government in implementing infrastructure projects going all the way back to 2002. I think the first reason that's always identified is that the government will announce these programs, and there often ends up being a delay in the announcement of the program and the signing of agreements with subnational governments, or provincial governments and municipalities, who of course are responsible for close to 90% of public capital and infrastructure investment across the country. There is always potentially a delay on that front.
As well, something important that we've noted in previous reports and testified to in previous committee appearances, in particular before the finance committee in the other chamber of Parliament, is that in the current context, some of the feedback we received from some subnational governments was that there wasn't necessarily the same degree of slack in the economy. The government's announcement of a significant increase in infrastructure investment was certainly potentially welcome as additional funding, but in terms of the capacity of provincial governments and municipalities to move exceptionally quickly to identify not only existing projects but also, of course, new projects.... That is something that the federal government has identified. They don't want the laundry list of what provincial governments were already planning on spending, but want new incremental projects, which in itself takes some time for subnational governments, or provincial governments and municipalities, to also implement.
Getting back to the core part of your question, after all that work has been done and the agreements have been signed and provincial governments have actually identified projects, there in turn end up being discussions with the federal government and federal public service on the nature of the projects that will actually be funded.