Mr. Speaker, I listened carefully to what the hon. member from Western Canada had to say about how the government should balance the budget and spend its money. The member talked in particular about the infrastructure project and I would also like to address this issue and ask a question in this matter.
The infrastructure program set up by the government is not harmful in itself. On the contrary, I think it could help us to create jobs in the short run, help the economy to work better and help the workers to become more productive.
What I have trouble with is that the federal government is taking part in this infrastructure program. The federal government is getting directly involved in an area over which the municipalities have jurisdiction. This goes against the Constitution, because the federal government has never been willing, in the past, to directly impede on municipal jurisdictions. But the Liberal government has achieved to do so, without Canadians realizing what it was up to, because it says it was just trying to help the people. Canadians were taken in by the government, but they never realize that the money always come from their own pockets.
This is why I say again that the federal government's involvement at the municipal level is terrible, that it should not be allowed and will only lead to inefficiency, since we have three levels of government deciding which street to repair, what type of bridge to build, what project to undertake. This is terrible and should never have been accepted.
The federal government should have given the money directly to the provinces who, along with the municipalities, would have decided which project to support.