Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Simcoe North for sharing his time with me. I also thank the member for Chatham-Kent—Essex for sharing his desk with me for this speech.
Since the budget was presented last Tuesday, we have heard a lot about it over the last number of days. There has been a lot of discussions about specifics. My goal today is talk about the economic action plan that we will vote on later this evening. Based on the information I have, I assume it will pass and the government will be able to move on and deliver some of the important items in the plan.
As we all know, we are facing a very difficult time. The action plan documentation talks about what is happening in the United States in terms of its economic situation and around the world. Therefore, Canadians are not isolated in that sense. We have to meet the challenges that the rest of the world is facing from an economic point of view, and the action plan does that.
The action plan is very comprehensive. It covers a number of areas and a number of industries. It talks about people and how we will to deal with that. It talks about infrastructure. All those components put together make up an action plan that will make a difference and will be the stimulus that we and the people of Canada have looked for so our economy will move ahead.
As has been stated by other members of the House, and by the finance minister, we are in a pretty good position in comparison to our colleagues around the world. Whether it is the United States or the European countries, we are in a very good financial position. Our banking system is solid. There are some issues obviously that we need to deal with and that is what the action plan does.
I want to speak about a few things that perhaps have not received a lot of attention in the last week, but they are in the action plan. They are important, not just to me as the chair of the GTA caucus, but also the member for Burlington, which is an urban area in southern Ontario.
First, I have been actively promoting transit and municipal infrastructure since I came to Ottawa in 2006. This action plan deals directly with those issues.
There are $4 billion worth of infrastructure stimulus allocated in the budget. I do not want to just talk about the numbers. I want to talk about what it means to my community and the communities in the GTA.
We are facing a very difficult time in getting goods, services and people, the labour aspects, to and from work. The quality of life sitting on QEW is diminished every day as more and more people use their cars to get to and from work. The transit system is good, but it could be better. The moneys we have put forward in the infrastructure stimulus has a two year limit, so the money has to be spent and has to move. It is in partnership with our provincial counterparts. We also have the accelerated payments of $1 billion that have already been announced. These are important investments in infrastructure that will help both the municipalities and the transit systems, an area where we think that money should be spent.
We have heard from opposition members that the municipalities do not have the money. I can list quotes from the Association of Municipalities of Ontario or the Federation of Municipalities. They are all in favour of what we are doing.
I had consultations in my riding and as a member of the finance committee, we met every week prior to the budget being presented. We talked to different individuals and groups. We are talking about what we call shovel ready projects, projects that municipalities or the provinces are ready to move on. They have budgeted and approved those budgets. They are ready to go.
On occasion, we will hear from somebody from a municipality who perhaps would like something but it is not ready. That could happen in the future, but there are hundreds of projects across the country. In my riding I can name two or three projects that were approved last night in the capital budget. They are ready to go, ready to happen. They are shovel ready. In fact, I have a project that is coming up at the end of March—