Perhaps I could take a crack at that. I think you're absolutely right in terms of the flexibility piece. The accountability piece, though, is important. That's the follow-through to make sure that if the government says they're going to spend this amount of money, and they're hoping to achieve these targets.... That type of mechanism, if done properly, shouldn't delay the project approvals. It's more about tracking to make sure the money was spent properly after the fact.
Perhaps we can dive down on the flexibility piece. This is one where I absolutely agree with you. We see the government announcements for big envelopes of money, all with various lenses and criteria. We have had some witnesses at this committee point to the various criteria that are preventing good projects, ones that are ready to go, from being initiated. They spend a lot of time trying to fit municipal projects into the various criteria the government has put forward in the programs.
I'm wondering if your stakeholders, your municipalities, would like to see a system where we say, Canada's a big country with lots of different needs. Some communities need help with public transit. Some don't. Certainly, for some projects, such as bike lanes in cities—it's not as easy to move around by bicycle in Regina as it is in Toronto—those types of decisions can be left to the municipalities themselves. Mayors and councils can inform their voters on what types of projects they believe they need. The federal government doesn't need to get into dictating to the level that it currently is.
Is that something you would generally agree with, or would you have a reaction to that?