Mr. Speaker, I would like to try once again-I have tried this several times-to go through this funding for the infrastructure program.
The infrastructure program is supposed to spend $6 billion, $2 billion from municipal sources, $2 billion provincial and $2 billion federal. At the end of the day through this exercise we have spent $6 billion.
The minister has indicated that the municipalities were in favour of this. Having talked to a mayor of a municipality his feeling was that "my public works program is going to continue as it always did". The difference here is that the residential taxpayer will only see one-third of the usual cost because the provincial and the federal governments are going to share.
No wonder the municipal politicians are in favour of it. We are going to carry a fair bit of burden at the federal and provincial levels. Nevertheless it is the same taxpayer who pays regardless of which level provides the funding.
My question I suppose is going to be obvious. What can the minister tell us that we have at the end of two years other than spending $6 billion and employing 60,000 people, I believe the number of their book was, over two years? What is left after the two years besides $6 billion in expenditures, some kind of capital structure and maybe a very few people employed to maintain the structure? What is left for employment, besides a very large bill to pay?