Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question. I miss him. He used to sit on the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities. Perhaps he will join us there again soon. I know he has received a well-deserved promotion.
Clearly, when we break down the $33 billion over seven years—it is important to understand that this is over seven years—we see that the gas tax represents $11.5 billion; the GST, $5 billion; and the building Canada fund, $8.8 billion.The rest is made up of border infrastructure and other programs that do not affect cities directly. As for the building Canada fund, the $8.8 billion could be used, I admit. However, the projects that could be funded by this fund have to do with airports and lots of other things that do not necessarily come under cities.
Consequently, let us say that $25.3 billion might be used for cities. This amount is spread over seven years. If we divide this amount by seven, we get $3.5 billion a year in round figures. However, this year alone, cities would need $123 billion if they wanted to take care of everything in one year, which is impossible.
So when we break down the figures, we see that the $33 billion becomes $25.3 billion over seven years for cities, or $3.5 billion a year. This is far less than what cities are expecting or could expect to receive to address their infrastructure deficit.