Mr. Speaker, the New Democrats believe that a long-term effective infrastructure plan should be included in the 2013 budget, which is developed through continuous consultation with provinces, territories, municipalities and aboriginal communities and which would span a period of 20 years to allow for better long-term planning and support of long-term projects, sets clear funding criteria and program targets, uses transparent accountable and non-political allocation mechanisms to facilitate this process, something from which the Conservative government can learn.
It encourages the use of innovative technologies to get better efficiency, to provide dedicated funds for replacing and expanding rural, remote and northern infrastructure, to provide dedicated transit funds, to reduce commute times and to provide regular, frequent and transparent progress reports to Parliament.
Those are the priorities of the NDP. Those are the priorities of the cities, business groups and Canadians across the country. That is exactly what they are going to see in 2015.