Mr. Speaker, first of all, I am a bit surprised that my colleague across the way sees himself as a student at a demonstration. That is what he said earlier on. I am both surprised and intrigued
He is right on one aspect. It is true that, whenever a government, be it federal, provincial or municipal, spends or invests money, it does so with taxpayers' money, all coming out of the same pocket.
However, I take pride in the fact that, having been asked to manage that money, we chose to redistribute it to the ATR in his region as a key priority, based on its excellent plan. It does take time and that is because, as a government, we act responsibly. We do not throw money around, left and right indiscriminately. We do a careful, professional and systematic analysis. We work in cooperation with applicants. Once we have all the information, we work on the plan.
While he is posturing and telling the gentleman across the way, once again, how worthless we are--it is so predictable--we do the work and deliver the goods.