Denis Lebel

[Regional Economic Development, March 27th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, as my colleague knows quite well, the Canada Post Corporation is an organization that operates according to the rules set by its board of directors.

It is important to remind these people that the Canada Post Corporation is having to deal with a 20% drop in its market in recent years. In 2011, it had an operating deficit of $253 million.

They would resolve this by devising a $21 billion carbon tax. As for us, we will let that organization make courageous decisions to secure the future of the postal service across Canada.

[The Budget, March 27th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, the building Canada fund, which was launched in 2007 and will end on March 31, 2014, provided $33 billion. The money that is being invested this year came from that program.

Our new program is for April 1, 2014, and subsequent years. As I said, in Quebec, the federal government cannot work directly with municipalities. Municipalities in Quebec have to send their projects to the Government of Quebec, which sends the invoice to the federal government. We pay the province when we receive the invoice.

[The Budget, March 27th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, my colleague knows very well that in Quebec, we cannot work directly with municipalities. We have to go through the province. Municipalities have to send their projects to the province, and the province sends the projects to the federal government. We pay when we receive the invoices, and that is that.

If the province does not send us the invoice at the right time, we will pay it later. That is just cash management.

[The Budget, March 27th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, I have spoken with a number of municipal representatives in Quebec in the past few hours about the new infrastructure plan, and that is not how they are interpreting things. People see this as the largest plan Canada has ever seen.

As far as investment in infrastructure is concerned, the current building Canada program will come to an end on March 31, 2014, and the new plan will be ready on April 1, 2014. We hope that every province will sign on as soon as possible.

[Regional Economic Development, March 26th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, once again, that is completely false.

We have not reduced the department's operating budget. Two temporary initiatives are simply ending.

I repeat, the cruise ship initiative and the initiative for the strengthening of Quebec's forest economies are coming to an end.

We have business offices in all regions of Quebec. Not too long ago, I had the honour of accompanying the Prime Minister to the beautiful region of Rivière-du-Loup, where we made an important announcement at Premier Tech. We will continue to invest in Montmagny and across Quebec.

We are doing our job everywhere, and I am very proud to serve as Minister of Economic Development Canada.

[Infrastructure, March 26th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, the premise of the question is wrong and the member received all the answers in committee last week. She has all the information, but she prefers not to consider it.

If the member opposite cares so much about infrastructure spending, she should support our government for creating the building Canada fund, doubling and making permanent the gas tax fund and creating the economic action plan. She will have another chance. She will have to vote for this budget, the economic action plan, because we have a new plan for infrastructure.

[Infrastructure, March 25th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, the FCM president, Karen Leibovici, said:

[The] budget delivers significant gains for Canada's cities and communities. We applaud the government for choosing to continue moving our communities forward even as it meets its immediate fiscal challenges.

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities and the vast majority of cities across Canada congratulated our government for the new infrastructure plan. The opposition does not understand this.

[Transportation, March 21st, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, in cases like this, we must respect jurisdictions. If the City of Montreal wants to speak with us, it must first speak to the Government of Quebec. That is how Canada's infrastructure system works, and the province of Quebec is the only province in which municipalities cannot speak directly to the federal government. The municipality of Montreal must speak to the Government of Quebec, which must make this issue a priority. The Government of Quebec must then talk to us. This process has not yet begun.

As soon as people have set their priorities and come talk to us, we will see. With respect to the issue of public transportation on the new bridge over the St. Lawrence, we are waiting for the province to choose the type of public transportation. As of right now, we have not received a request.

[Regional Economic Development, March 21st, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, do not be surprised that the Conservative government is now to blame for snowstorms. I am not surprised at all. It has come to that.

Of course, a system is in place and it is working. There is a business office taking care of the entire Outaouais region. All these business people have to do is go and meet with Marc Boily, the director of the Outaouais business office, and he and his team will be happy to take care of any claims that are submitted. That being said, there has to be a claim to submit.

[Transportation, March 20th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, to begin, there was a statement in that question that is completely untrue. The Quebec government was very clear on the federal government's role in the new bridge over the St. Lawrence and in its choice about public transit. Envelopes were given to the provinces, and the provinces made their own decisions.

Similarly, the metro is the responsibility of the City of Montreal and the Province of Quebec. Once again, the member wants us to manage their day-to-day work and make decisions for them. The federal government will continue to partner with the provinces and municipalities, but we will not replace them.