It's maybe why we're here discussing this. I think, as everybody on this committee recognizes, there's a pretty significant infrastructure gap in Canada, and I hope everybody on the committee also recognizes that there's a very direct link between the status of our infrastructure, the economic growth in Canada and the competitiveness of our country globally.
The issue we face in resolving that is a very complicated one. Financing is part of the answer to that problem. It is not exclusively the answer to that problem. Infrastructure projects come in all shapes, colours and sizes, and they require very different solutions in terms of how you finance them, how you construct them, how you deliver them and how you operate them.
Private capital is one of the ways in which to address that. It is part of a solution set. It's not the only answer. It is part of a solution set, which applied in the right situation for the right project can be incredibly powerful and produce wonderful results. In certain circumstances, projects should be funded by the government. In others, there's probably a case to be made that the private sector should do it. The case for it, as I alluded to in my opening remarks, is that government has finite financing capacity. The government has finite funding capacity, and the government has a choice. It's a policy choice that the government has to make as to where it puts its limited capital to get the most benefit for the country.
There's an interesting question, which is this: Should the government use its financing and funding capital to support nation-building projects that can't be financed in the private markets, and let the private markets finance projects that can be funded in the private markets?