Mr. Speaker, I rise to follow up on my question to the minister with respect to the national infrastructure program for which funds were provided in the last federal budget. My question had to do with the situation of agreements between the provinces and the federal government and, in particular, with the lack of agreement for such an infrastructure program with the municipalities in the province of Ontario.
I have heard right up to today that agreements have now been signed for flexible infrastructure programs involving the provinces and the municipalities in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, even in Alberta and in all the maritime provinces. There is still no agreement with the province of Ontario.
The first national infrastructure program initiated by the government was an enormous success in the Peterborough riding. In both the city and the county, it was very well received. We had almost 100 projects. They were projects of all sorts, ranging from buildings to highways, bridges and things of that sort.
The key, I believe, to the success of that program was that in the end, subject to the approval of the province and the Government of Canada, the choice of infrastructure project was made by the municipality. It was the municipalities of Peterborough that defined what was important from the point of view of infrastructure for them at that time.
I understand the debate that is going on with the province of Ontario is one in which Ontario wants to dictate what is infrastructure. I have heard different rumours. It has been suggested that because of the tragedy of Walkerton the province of Ontario wants to stress sewer and water facilities. I have heard also that the province of Ontario wants to stress highways.
What I would like to say is, why should we, the upper levels of government, define what is important for the infrastructure of a township or city? Only that township or city has a sense of what is important for them.
For example, let us say we defined, as Ontario appears to want, that all the money should go to water projects. Let us say there is a municipality that has been consistently, right up to now, investing in water and sewer projects. Why should we penalize it in a national infrastructure program when its priority might be something else? It might be bridges or a building of some sort.
Only the municipalities know what is important for infrastructure at this time. From here in Ottawa we cannot look across all the provinces to the thousands of municipalities and make judgments on what is important for each of them. The only way we can do it is to trust the municipal level of government, the local level of government, as we did in the first national infrastructure program and have the municipalities pick the projects, submit them to a panel of provincial and federal people which will have established criteria, and then move the projects along.
As I said, in Peterborough the last time that method worked extremely well for almost 100 projects. I could take the hon. members to any of those projects and they would agree with me that they were well worthwhile.
What we are looking for is a program that will improve the infrastructure of municipalities all the way across Canada. The municipalities have asked us again and again for this project. The federal government, the federal cabinet, our government, has agreed that this is a priority. The money was earmarked and ready to flow in our spring budget.
As I have mentioned, the majority of provinces in Canada have now signed on. I have read those agreements. There are particular emphases in different provinces but there are possibilities for infrastructure projects of all sorts.
I want to ask the minister the question again. Where do we stand with an infrastructure agreement in Ontario? Can we expect such a program soon?