Chuck Strahl

[Infrastructure, September 29th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, we are being fair and reasonable.

In fact, when the Preco program was put together specifically with Quebec, the Government of Quebec insisted on a December 31 deadline. I do not know why that was. We said that March 31 was what it was for the country, but if Quebec wanted to do it by December 31, we would work with it to do that. Now it wants to change that deadline.

Of course, we will continue to work with Quebec and other provinces to be fair and reasonable. By all means, if the December 31 deadline the Quebec government itself put in place needs to be changed, well, we did not put it there. We are going to be fair and reasonable with the people of Quebec to make sure that those projects get done.

[Infrastructure, September 27th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, nothing is in jeopardy. The important thing is there are six months yet to go before the deadline, so there is lots of time.

We are very interested to hear about particular projects like this. Provincial ministers are busy gathering data from across the country, sharing it with me over the next week or two so we can get a good picture of this.

My department is talking to individual project proponents to ensure that if there are any details out there, any problems out there, we want to know about them. Information like this is in the system. We are well aware of it.

However, there are six months to go. There is nothing in jeopardy. The people there should be very confident that this project will get built.

[Infrastructure, September 27th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, I have said repeatedly in the House, since I took over a portfolio that was in excellent shape, that we have been fair and reasonable going into this. We have been helping to re-scope projects. We have been helping to identify other projects that some municipalities want into. We will continue to be fair and reasonable, working with proponents of projects as I identify particular problems along the way.

However, we have six months to go until the March 31 deadline. In the meantime, project after project is coming in. Many times they are coming in below budget and ahead of schedule.

[Infrastructure, September 27th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, the finance minister has said, I have said, we have said repeatedly in the House that we have been fair and reasonable all along and will continue to be fair and reasonable.

I look forward to the report from the Quebec minister, who is going to give me an update within the next few days on the status of that.

There is no confusion over here about the question. The confusion is on the vote that took place on these measures themselves. Why is the Bloc so concerned about the completion of the project when it voted against starting any project at all?

[Infrastructure, September 27th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, we continue to work with our partners, the provinces and municipalities, on projects right across the country. The good news today is that the finance minister was able to table the sixth report. We saw that 22,000 projects are being started and completed across the country.

In Halifax today the provincial government announced that all of its projects are going to get done. It just wants to know how to reinvest the surplus money, and we are going to work with it on that. That is more good news.

We will continue to be reasonable and fair. I talked to my provincial counterpart. He is going to give me some more data on the status of those projects in Quebec. We are working closely together for the benefit of Canada and Quebec.

[Infrastructure, September 23rd, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member is talking about the fact that so many projects, thousands upon thousands of projects, good projects, are providing much needed infrastructure across the country, providing jobs, providing opportunity and are helping to bind our country together in a common cause called hope and opportunity.

What we do not want to do is listen too closely to the Bloc, because those members voted against this project. They said they did not want the economic action plan to go ahead. In fact, if it were up to them, this project would not only not be finished, it would never have been started.

[Infrastructure, September 23rd, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, I did get a quick update, and 99% of all the projects are under way. There are still six months to go until the deadline.

What is clear is that we have been working with the provinces. For example, I talked this morning with Monsieur Lessard, my provincial counterpart. He and I, of course, have a good working relationship. We talk about the projects that are in progress. We talk about the updated information that he is receiving from the municipalities, and in turn when that information is compiled, we will talk about whether there are other steps we need to take.

We work co-operatively. It is a strange concept to the Bloc but co-operation actually does work.

[Government Programs, September 23rd, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, the infrastructure stimulus fund was a targeted, timely and temporary program. I can imagine how the Liberals would just like this to drift on and on. They never saw a program they did not want to spend more money on.

The key is this. We have signed agreements with municipalities and provinces that talk about how this money will roll out. We are working closely with the provinces. They are all in the midst of giving reports back to me. I talked to my Quebec counterpart today, for example. Reports will be coming back in the next week or two to give us the lastest status.

We have been fair and reasonable on this throughout and we will continue to be that way in the future.

[Government Programs, September 23rd, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, our government has had a great relationship with the provinces, with municipalities, with proponents across the country.

My predecessor announced some 12,000 projects from coast to coast to coast. Thousands upon thousands of jobs are being created. The vast majority of those projects are well under way; I think it is over 93% or 94%. I think we should give the previous minister an A-plus for the number of projects that are getting done.

We continue to be reasonable in working with the provinces. We continue to work with them to scope projects and to see if there are problems. They will be reporting back to me shortly with an updated list.

[Infrastructure, September 22nd, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, I can tell why my seatmate had such fun listening to the Bloc members as they complained about too much infrastructure in their province and in their ridings.

We continue to work with the Government of Quebec and the Montreal government. We are working together on specific projects. We work together with them to scope the projects properly. We work with them on specific things that we can do together to make sure these projects get done.

Whether it is cultural infrastructure, port infrastructure, or whatever we are working on, it is creating jobs across the country