Finance committee  You have asked me many, many questions.

Finance committee  The gas tax, I think, has been a successful model. In last year's budget we made it permanent, which I think is important if municipalities want to borrow on that revenue stream. I guess we had to take a balanced approach. In the pre-budget process, whoever we spoke with.... When we spoke with municipalities, they said, give all of that money to municipalities because we can move quickly.

Finance committee  You asked me a question about the parliamentary budget officer. I haven't see the specific nature of his request, but I would certainly entertain anything from the parliamentary budget officer. Mr. Ignatieff has put the government on probation. You could be my probation officer.

Finance committee  On the third issue, I've said to the deputy that we'll certainly provide him with any resources that the department requires in the short term to assist us in getting this money out. I think one of the things that we are committed to do is to streamline the process.

Finance committee  I want to point out that I had a very good meeting with Ms. Jérôme-Forget. I respect the fact that many of the areas covered the Building Canada Initiative fall under provincial jurisdiction. The government is working with Ms. Jérôme-Forget and Minister Normandeau. With the stimulus funds, I have no doubt that Quebec will have enough projects that will begin as soon as possible, and be completed by March 2011.

Finance committee  I did not participate in the negotiations on the Quebec agreement, because my colleague, Lawrence Cannon, was Minister of Transport at the time. The Building Canada Initiative is a plan for this year. The stimulus fund will spread out over the next 25 months. A pre-condition to obtaining funds is that projects must begin as soon as possible, and be completed within 25 months.

Finance committee  I learned a long time ago from my days in provincial politics not to mess with your mayor, and I have the scars to prove it. We've done a significant amount of work already in the GTA. The big, overwhelming priority in the GTA is public transit, whether it's the TTC, whether it's the various metro links proposals.

Finance committee  Because municipalities are not our only partners. Provinces are also our partners and I mentioned a good number of other groups whose names I won't repeat. What we want to do as well, for example, in the economic stimulus fund, is that if we could take $4 billion and turn that into up to $12 billion, then we'd get three times the bang for the buck and be able to support three times as many projects.

Finance committee  You want a quick response, but you've raised about five issues that I would like to respond to. We've decided to take a balanced approach and not to simply give all the money to municipalities. Provinces have projects as well. We think there are many municipalities that can have matching funds.

Finance committee  They wanted money to flow directly to them immediately.

Finance committee  I can tell you that just about everyone we consulted with--and this goes far beyond just the work I did with provinces.... At the first ministers meeting the provinces called for a model of a trust exchange of money, where the money could flow to the provinces, and then they would be in control with--

Finance committee  We wanted to take a balanced approach. We didn't want to give all the money to the provinces, all the money to the municipalities, all the money to colleges and universities, all the money to ports, all the money to airports. We wanted to take a balanced approach.

Finance committee  One of the things we did before making any decisions is go out and we listen. I was impressed that on the Navigable Waters Protection Act, the Conservative Party, the Liberal Party, the Bloc Québécois, and the NDP did a lot of work on this--the transport committee--and responded unanimously.

Finance committee  I hope there will be many benefits environmentally. I worked quite hard with one of our members of Parliament on a project in Merrickville, where the waste water treatment plant is about to collapse, with the potential of sending raw sewage down the Rideau, which is now a UNESCO world heritage site.

Finance committee  I do not intend to wage such a battle. I have a lot of respect for the Premier of Quebec. I simply want to point out that I do not doubt that Gary Doer, Gordon Campbell, Dalton McGuinty and Jean Charest are ready to support this measure, considering all of the work they have done for the environment.