Thank you, Madam Chair.
I'm somewhat confused about something in this series of meetings we had about infrastructure, and there's something I don't quite understand. Maybe the representatives here could provide some perspective on this.
On the one hand, we're hearing from the government and from some stakeholders that the lapsed money isn't a big deal. In fact, we had a witness here at the last committee meeting who said Canada, in his view, is in fact spending too much money on infrastructure. He referenced a McKinsey Global Institute report of last October that said that the gap between infrastructure needs and infrastructure spending in Canada is negative 0.2%. In other words, we're spending an extra $4 billion a year in this country that we don't need to spend on infrastructure.
On the other hand, we're hearing from the PBO, through two reports now, that this lapsed money is a problem, that economic growth projected from infrastructure spending is not as strong as expected. My first-hand experience tells me we're not spending enough money to address the infrastructure deficit. My riding reaches into the greater Toronto area, and I can tell you that the daily activity that most contributes to Canadians' dissatisfaction is commuting.
The Toronto board of trade, for the last number of years in its annual report on prosperity, has highlighted that Toronto has the worst commuting times in the country and the second worst in North America, even worse than Los Angeles. Commuting times in North America, in Toronto, are only surpassed by New York city, which is a truly global city, a centre of truly global commerce.
StatsCan reported on the most recent census data available last November that commuting times have gotten longer not just in Toronto, but in Montreal and other cities in the country.
I don't understand this disconnect. We have had people say there's not a problem with lapsed money. The last witness at this committee from the University of Ottawa indicated that in fact the government is probably spending too much money on infrastructure—federal, provincial, and municipal governments combined. I referenced that McKinsey report that says we're spending an extra $4 billion a year; we don't need to spend it on the ground. With the PBO, with Statistics Canada, we're hearing a different reality. Our economy is suffering because of a lack of infrastructure investment, commuting times are getting longer, and quality of life is going down.
I don't understand this disconnect here. Maybe you could illuminate why that is.