Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Finance committee  Which portion of the program? We talk about child care--

Finance committee  With respect to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, we need to go beyond the five-year commitment on the share of the fuel tax.

Finance committee  I don't have an overall costing in totality.

Finance committee  No, we don't represent very many federal employees.

Finance committee  Through the chair, I would suggest that we follow the establishment of something that was started with the consent of most provinces in Canada. Some provinces signed five-year deals with the federal government and put shovels in the ground to start building these things.

Finance committee  I know that the elimination of the deals as of March 2007—

Finance committee  You probably know the answer to that.

Finance committee  Listen, the five-year deals that were started by the previous government—

Finance committee  Let me give you an example. The Government of Manitoba relied on the five-year deal that was signed. They started capital costs—

Finance committee  --and that's ending. You've taken over $3 billion from the commitment.

Finance committee  The government you're a part of cut $3 billion from the proposed five-year child care deal.

Finance committee  Through the chair, the centre was founded in the early to mid-1980s, and it was funded by government. The federal government is one of the few bodies that can bring together business and labour in Canada at a senior level. I've been a board member for only a couple of years, bu

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. We're quite privileged to represent just over half a million Canadians who work all across Canada, and we think this opportunity to speak on federal finances and our budget is very, very important. We note that last year en