Mr. Chair, we've not found that to be a great problem. It's a dilemma for the government, of course. Mr. Scheer mentioned, first of all, the fact that you want accountability and that the Auditor General is looking at that, yet the more accountable we must be, the more information we must provide, which really means that we probably delay having a project approved. By and large, though, we have found the system to be acceptable.
The challenge we have is with the specific criteria. When there's not flexibility in the criteria, it's often difficult to fit it. For instance, an overall allocation of funding without—I hate to use the term, because you won't want to hear this—“strings attached” is much more viable than those with established criteria that are difficult to meet. Those are the very competitive ones that are based on various municipalities competing for them, of course. It's much better for us if we can have that flexibility. Then we can apply the funds to the areas that we feel are best.
Again, there's a contradiction there. On the one hand, you want to please the Auditor General. On the other, if you please the Auditor General too much, there's not flexibility in the program.