Mr. Speaker, the hon. member for Timmins--James Bay has made a very good point. As I said in my discourse, smaller communities do need that funding. It would be great to have the full amount go out to them, but by having the money go out now, it allows them to act, it allows them at least to get going with existing projects. So many small communities across northern Ontario are left out when it comes to the building Canada program. It is just not done in a timely manner and, more important, it costs money. It cuts into the money they have to run their organization. To put the capital into infrastructure, they have to take it out of operations or plan for it.
The hon. member for Edmonton Centre talked about borrowing money. It is nice to say that the communities can borrow money, but if they do not have the tax base or the credit rating and they are small communities, it really does not help. It does not take into account small municipalities in northern Ontario and much of rural Canada.
What is nice about this program is that on a per capita basis, the money is put into the community. It can upgrade, and if it wants, and if it is fortunate enough to have a certain amount of money put aside, it can still go the next step and apply for the other half and get the larger projects done. However, it is the day-to-day infrastructure that needs to be done. Especially nowadays, as we drive through a lot of the smaller communities in northern Ontario, as the frost comes out of the ground, we start seeing more and more potholes, bumps that we know were not there when the frost was in, and that creates some permanent damage. If they are not taken care of right away, they end up causing a problem. The important thing is that we get that money right out into the community and get that infrastructure in place so that Canadians can benefit from it.