Mr. Speaker, I am grateful that the hon. member pronounced my riding's name correctly. I know it is a rather difficult because of the sheer length of it.
Now, maybe the hon. member was not here during question period or maybe he did not understand. First, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure and Crown Corporations said that we have not yet passed the bill we need to implement this program. Second, we need a procedure of some kind to determine which projects are really strategic.
In other words, the minister just told us that the existing Canada-Quebec financing program, with an equal contribution by the municipalities, the provinces and the federal government, does not apply in this case. We have to negotiate from scratch again. We may end up in a situation similar to the Canadian millennium scholarships, with negotiations between governments to reinstate a program. But in the end, the money will be spent much later.
I say that in view of the many projects now on the table—Quebec surely has some 50 if not 100 major strategic projects that could be funded under this program—if the agreement were signed tomorrow morning, all these projects would be under way within a month. Everybody would be in a position to move forward.
With the government's current decision, things will go slower than that. The hon. member is asking me whether there are major strategic projects. There are lots of projects. I know that in my riding there are major road construction projects. There are also some across the province and in other areas such as tourism and municipal works.
There is also the whole issue of water quality, which is a very majaor challenge. That will help ensure that we have quality products and a healthy population. That will also help ease the pressure on health networks.
So there is no problem with the projects and their quality. The only problem we have now is that federal money is not available because visibility is being sought.
As for us, we are able to live with a large maple leaf. That is not what is bothering us. Quebecers are so bombarded by federal advertising that they are not listening anymore. It no longer influences them. It has now become something of a broken record.
However, we want the projects to get underway and the money to be spent. At present, the only impediment is the federal government's indecisiveness, the fact that it wants to create a new operating structure. whereas the existing one would allow those projects to get under way very quickly.