Mr. Speaker, for those watching, I would like to say that we just heard our colleague from Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound say farewell. I would certainly like to join the other members of the House in thanking him for his service to Canadians.
Today, I am speaking to my constituents in Gatineau, a number of whom have been through quite a lot in recent years, including tornadoes and flooding. These last four years, we have made tremendous progress together under this government. I am of course referring to the Canada child benefit, which, in Gatineau alone, has put over $6 million in tax-free cash back into the pockets of parents every month. Furthermore, with summer fast approaching, students are working hard and benefiting from the fact that we doubled funding for summer jobs. We also brought back order, respect and stability to our public service, which had important needs to meet, challenges to face and growth to achieve given this government's ambitions.
I could have talked about any of those things, which were all of great benefit to the people of Gatineau. However, I want to focus on two or three of the innovative measures set out in this budget that I care about, both as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Services and Procurement and as the member for Gatineau.
This budget implementation bill explores new opportunities for entrepreneurs. Gatineau is home to many construction companies and tradespeople. Every year, these people build houses and office buildings, thereby enabling the Government of Canada to continue its work through federal construction projects. We owe a great deal to the people of Gatineau who work hard and use their hands and their heads to help us build the infrastructure the Government of Canada needs.
This budget implementation bill will enshrine the prompt payment principles in law. We worked with some of our colleagues, including the member for Humber River—Black Creek, the member for King—Vaughan and many others, to follow the lead of some of the provinces, including Ontario, that have legislated to ensure that the contractors working on major construction projects, the subcontractors, the subcontractors' subcontractors and all those who are part of the supply chain get paid on time in accordance with the terms of their contract. That means that suppliers will be paid, materials will be paid for and everything will be done in a smooth and orderly fashion in accordance with the principles of justice, transparency and fairness. These are Canadian values, Liberal values, that I believe we should all support.
This is a major modernization in the management of our construction projects. This principle aims to ensure that a formal contract award process can be launched in the event that an agreement cannot be reached with the contractor. This very fast and inexpensive process will ensure that subcontractors, and by extension their employees, such as trades people and construction workers, for example, are paid in accordance with current standards and their contractual terms.
The Government of Canada is proud to be taking a leadership role. Public Services and Procurement Canada is now acting as an administrator. We have provided this leadership through a 14-point plan and the new legislative measure in the Liberal government's fourth budget. We are proud to be ensuring timely payments in the construction industry.
The second thing I want to discuss was also a very important issue of general interest to the riding of Gatineau, if not the entire national capital region. We have invested considerable sums in the Terrasses de la Chaudière complex, the Place du Portage complex, the Lester B. Pearson building and all the Parliament buildings, for example. We are making significant investments to repair and upgrade our institutions and federal buildings. We are doing so as a sign of respect not only towards the machinery of government, but also, of course, towards those who work in it.
I was proud to launch the new concept of “co-working”, which involves making offices available in the suburbs, in Orléans or at Place de la Cité in my own riding of Gatineau. There will be offices where employees of certain departments will be able to work if their child has a dentist appointment, for example. They can work closer to home that day. This is another show of respect and another investment in our infrastructure.
The Government of Canada is stepping up. My colleagues in the House may think it is not necessarily a good political move for the government to invest in its own offices. However, it is very important for the government and for the public service in the national capital region.
Since Confederation, the Government of Canada has also had the solemn responsibility of ensuring that Canadians are able to travel between both sides of the Ottawa River. We have five bridges, including the most recent one built in 1973. At the time there were 650,000 people in the entire national capital region. Now there are nearly 1.5 million people, and not a single lane has been added since 1973.
The City of Ottawa and the City of Gatineau have plans to invest in public transit. These are necessary investments and the Government of Canada will help with traffic flow by investing more than $80 million in the renovation of the bridges that are in service. The Alexandra Bridge will be replaced. What is of most interest to the people of Gatineau is the construction of a sixth crossing between Gatineau and Ottawa in the east end.
We will update the pertinent data and work with our partners. I have committed to being the champion of this new bridge. I believe I have really helped advance this project, but the work is not done. There is more to do, and we must continue to advocate for this project. I want to reassure those watching that we have made considerable progress. I invite them to continue supporting our efforts so that we can build a sixth crossing in the national capital region.
We will continue to invest in our public services, our public servants and our government. In the national capital region, we are honoured to be part of the effort to build the best country on earth, Canada.