Mr. Speaker, I certainly share my colleague's serious concern about of the lack of actual infrastructure spending. There is a real shell game going on in this budget with money that has been previously announced and is being reannounced, and we still do not know the details of many of the programs. Then there is infrastructure money that we are told will be spent in the future; what we really need is infrastructure spending now.
We saw a major problem with our hydro in Toronto. People in our area were without hydro for more than a week, which created serious hardship for many over the holiday period. There were very cold days, and a lot of people with mobility problems and seniors were challenged by this situation.
We have problems with hydro infrastructure, roads, water, and sewage, but I think the number one infrastructure issue in Toronto, and I thank my colleague for raising it, is gridlock. It is identified by the Toronto Board of Trade as our number one economic issue. It costs our economy in Toronto alone about $6 billion. It is an investment that we should be making now to improve our transit infrastructure, not to mention all the other infrastructure needs we have.
The government is failing our large cities by not investing in our infrastructure now. It is really shocking that it is abandoning our major urban centres.