Madam Speaker, on behalf of my colleague, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport and the hon. member for Beauharnois—Salaberry, I am pleased to rise this evening to answer the question by my hon. colleague from Windsor West.
The Windsor gateway is a priority for all of Canada and we need to have the infrastructure in place to meet the needs of the Canadian economy in the 21st century. That is why on September 25, 2002, the Prime Minister and the Premier of Ontario signed a memorandum of understanding and committed $300 million over the next five years as part of a joint investment to upgrade existing infrastructure at the Ontario approaches to the Windsor-Detroit border crossings.
As part of this memorandum of understanding, a federal-provincial joint management committee was set up. This committee was asked to identify projects, hold consultations and make recommendations, in the form of an action plan, in Canada and in Ontario. During this process, the committee welcomed suggestions from interest groups and the general public to determine what infrastructure projects were a priority for upgrading the existing border crossings and their approaches, namely plans that could be implemented as partnerships between the public and private sectors.
This committee invited suggestions from various interest groups and the public throughout the development of the action plan. It held bilateral meetings with interested parties and interest groups, including municipal governments. A workshop was held for interested parties and participants, made up of various business and community representatives, seemed satisfied.
The committee placed ads in the local media seeking input from the public. During this period, members of the joint management committee also participated in a public gathering organized by the City of Windsor.
The hon. member for Windsor West will no doubt remember that the joint management committee delayed the action plan, in Canada and Ontario, to November 25, 2002, and that, in response to public expectations, the recommendations in the action plan were made public on December 20, 2002.
I want to say once again that the purpose of these recommendations was not to dictate a formal action plan. The members of the joint management committee clearly indicated, when the recommendations were published, that they were only one stage in the process and that no decision had yet been made.
In addition to the numerous briefs received since the process began, the committee members also sought the public's opinion by holding two open forums with Windsor residents, and participated in a public meeting organized by the City of Windsor on January 27. The comments from these sessions were carefully considered.
On May 27, 2003, the governments of Canada and Ontario agreed on a nine-point plan.
The joint management committee continues to work in close cooperation with the members of the group responsible for overseeing the application of the bi-national Canada-U.S. partnership process—