Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First, I would like to congratulate the new member for Davenport. I might add that it is nice to see a young man who is proud of his Portuguese background. My congratulations to him.
The hon. member spoke about his experience on city council. It is clear from what we are hearing from some of the mayors across the country that the new deal for cities is coming in under what exactly they would like to see. In fact, they would like to see an increase in the amount of money going from the fuel taxes to the cities over the course of the next little while and speeding it up to 2007.
I would like to know, since he spent time on city council, why the deal that his former colleagues are speaking about now is not adequate and yet since becoming a member of the government, the deal that the government has outlined is good enough for the Liberals, but not good enough for his own colleagues? Perhaps he could comment on that new deal for cities.