Mr. Speaker, I am really glad the member mentioned infrastructure in debating this issue before the House, because this reminds us of the problems related to this government's failure to consult the provinces and municipalities.
First of all, Quebec has yet to sign an agreement with the federal government regarding the building Canada fund. Here we are nearly a year after it was announced in budget 2014, and a funding agreement for the building Canada fund still has not been signed with Quebec.
Second, regarding the building Canada fund, the initial announcement was in 2013, when the budget was presented by the Minister of Infrastructure, Communities and Intergovernmental Affairs, who is also the former mayor of Roberval. For a year, he took advantage of every possible opportunity to boast that the program was finally going to allow the municipalities to seek funding for sports and cultural infrastructure, based on municipal priorities.
In 2014, however, that disappeared, even though municipalities like Rimouski—whose mayor, Éric Forest, is also a past president of the Union des municipalités du Québec and knows the Minister of Infrastructure, Communities and Intergovernmental Affairs very well—want the municipalities to be able to set their own priorities.
How can the federal government talk about good relations with the provinces, frequent meetings with the provinces and respecting the provinces' and municipalities' priorities when this same federal government imposes its will and its priorities regarding the infrastructure that the municipalities really need?