Mr. Speaker, there were two distinct parts to the hon. gentleman's question. To start with he made some references about infrastructure.
I believe he knows the Canada infrastructure works program as presently devised, even without the recent extension that has been
discussed, would invest something in the order of $58 million in Saskatchewan from federal funds. These dollars have been more than leveraged threefold. The amount of investment in total in the program in Saskatchewan if we include what the province, the municipalities and those in the private sector are investing is in excess of $200 million.
The program has generated more than 3,000 jobs in Saskatchewan, some of which are of a permanent long term nature. Approximately 1,200 to 1,500 very valuable projects have been undertaken.
The hon. gentleman demeans the value of the program in Saskatchewan. I hope he has the courage to go on to the campus of the University of Regina to explain his criticism to the faculty, the staff and students of the University of Regina who are benefiting from a new fine arts and multi-purpose building on the campus due to the Canada infrastructure works program.
I hope he will explain to the people who will benefit from the new Lewvan overpass in Regina how he is opposed to that kind of important public infrastructure being built to improve the transportation situation around the city of Regina.
I hope he will go into Saskatoon to explain to the people there how he is opposed to the infrastructure that has made a major contribution to the development of our high tech research facilities at the University of Saskatchewan.
The hon. gentleman should know as he hollers from his seat in a typical fashion that a portion of the infrastructure program in Saskatchewan was used for schools and health care facilities under the formula devised by the Government of Canada, the Government of Saskatchewan and the municipalities.
This program has been a tremendous success in Saskatchewan. No matter how the Reform Party may bleat about it, it cannot undercut and defeat the value of that program in the eyes of the municipalities and many Saskatchewan citizens who have participated in it and benefited from it.
On the second aspect of the hon. gentleman's question, there are some provisions in the new Canada Transportation Act that go to the issue of accountability. It is important to note that there are now some incentives built into the system to encourage performance on time and according to specifications.
We need to have an important discussion sooner rather than later about the other kinds of performance standards and accountability guarantees that can be written into our system to ensure those who have obligations to perform pay the penalty that should logically occur when they do not perform up to the standards that should be expected of them.
It is not fair in our system that others who are innocent of any failure to perform end up picking up the tab. The way the system has been structured historically, as I said in my remarks, the farmer tends to be at the end of the line and after everyone else has taken their cut the farmer gets what is left.
It is incumbent upon every player in the system further up the line to make sure that they are performing their responsibilities in the most efficient fashion so that the maximum amount possible is transferred into the hands of farmers and nothing is consumed by way of unnecessary costs that could have been avoided.
When a cost that could have been avoided is incurred in my judgment the person responsible for that cost should pay the bill.