Transport committee  Yes, it could be, potentially.

Transport committee  It's like a spectrum. The gas tax fund starts at the local level, and we look at local priorities based on their process. We work our way up to the small communities fund, which is again local in nature. Then there is the provincial and territorial infrastructure component, which is more regionally based and in some situations may be national.

Transport committee  In terms of the air link, my understanding was that this was a project supported by Transport Canada, so you'd have to have some conversations with them about that. In terms of the transit project you're referring to, again we haven't seen the project in its entirety come in. We're still waiting for the municipality, provinces, and territories to determine what, if anything, they want to do about the regional express rail, the electrification of the GO rails, as well as the SmartTrack project itself.

Transport committee  It all depends on the size and complexity of the project in terms of how long it takes to get from the initial application phase up to the point where we have a negotiated contribution in place with the recipient. But even after you have an agreement signed, as you said, we have to wait for the work to start, invoices to come in, and then invoices get paid.

Transport committee  Correct, and there has to be some education as well. People have to understand the program and how it works, what the criteria are. That takes a bit of time as well before they actually start applying under the program.

Transport committee  Yes, it's over an extended period of time. That's correct.

Transport committee  In terms of...?

Transport committee  There are multiple considerations that go into that. I think it would be important to note that the national infrastructure component is merit-based. Projects come in, and we deal with them one at a time. Under the current situation, it is not a competitive process where we have a start date, in terms of an intake process, and an end date.

Transport committee  At some point, we hope to have some kind of a track record on how we leverage private sector investment and this kind of infrastructure.

Transport committee  That should be fairly easy to do.

Transport committee  How much they received...?

Transport committee  And if it were a P3.... I understand.

Transport committee  Probably not. I can only assume that maybe it was Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada or maybe the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

Transport committee  Well, we always encourage projects to come forward, and that's the dynamic that we have with provinces and territories. We encourage them to bring forward their priority projects as quickly as possible so we can start assessing them and start making funding commitments. As I said, we basically work at the speed of the provinces and territories, but we do engage with them on a fairly regular basis, and always with the view of bringing forward projects that we believe will be eligible under our programs.

Transport committee  Yes.