Mr. Speaker, the answer is one word: privatization.
I attended the in camera meeting. I analyzed the economic update this afternoon before coming here. The Liberals are not taking $15 billion from the infrastructure bank to invest it. They are taking $15 billion that was promised to the municipalities, to the communities, and putting it in this infrastructure bank. Incidentally, the government is going to add some other poorly defined elements to the infrastructure bank, like property or a stake in existing infrastructure, in order to attract private investors.
That money will not be there to spend. It will be there to attract private investors who will once again want to use this privatization bank to earn predictable returns of 7% to 9% on their investments, as Mr. Sabia said.
I would like my Liberal friends to tell us why they never mentioned that they would be taking this approach during the election campaign. Why did they not mention the huge investment that the private sector would make in infrastructure in exchange for what they expect will be good returns?