Infrastructure  Mr. Speaker, in-depth studies require consultation with many people, as I said earlier. I will not repeat myself. We must consult the private sector, which will make those investments. It is worth mentioning that the KPMG report, just one of the reports we saw and examined, stat

Infrastructure  Mr. Speaker, we value the expertise that those in the private sector can offer and thank those on the economic advisory council for their advice, for example. We have engaged a number of actors across the country, including the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, unions, pro

Infrastructure  Mr. Speaker, we were elected on a promise to make historic investments worth $180 billion to build Canada for the 21st century. The session organized with BlackRock lasted just a few hours last fall, but we spent hundreds of hours consulting groups like the Federation of Canadia

Infrastructure  Mr. Speaker, if we mobilize private sector dollars to build new infrastructure projects, our investments will generate more spinoffs while freeing up public funds to invest even more in priorities such as social housing, disaster mitigation, women's shelters, drinking water, and

Infrastructure  Mr. Speaker, this is an important question to be asked. Indeed the infrastructure bank is an effort to leverage private capital in projects where we see fit. Again, let me remind the hon. member that these projects are put forward to us and these are projects that we will, throug

Infrastructure  Mr. Speaker, we value the expertise that those in the private sector can offer and thank those people who have been giving us this input. If we are going to offer options to the private sector, we indeed need to consult these people and get their input and feedback as we put our

Infrastructure  Mr. Speaker, we were elected on a platform to invest in a historic infrastructure plan, including developing an infrastructure bank. The infrastructure bank would engage private capital to build better public transit, energy transmission, trade corridors, and more across Canada

Business of Supply  Madam Speaker, I thank the member for her very good question. We committed to investing $2 billion in rural communities. That is a very important part of our plan. In addition, $500 million has been allocated to Internet service for rural and small communities. I want to emphasi

Business of Supply  Madam Speaker, I thank the member for his question. Obviously, we need to clarify the fact that the $180 billion is being allocated to a 12-year project. As the member well knows, the model agreements we will have with the provinces will vary from province to province, based on

Business of Supply  Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the member opposite for her advocacy for her community. I heard the passion with which she expressed her concern for development, particularly in social housing. These are needs in any city and most communities. In mine, for example, it is up

Business of Supply  Madam Speaker, I would first like to inform you that I will be sharing my time with the member for Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe. It is an honour to stand in the House today to speak about the important work our government is doing to support our municipalities' infrastructure invest

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the member for her speech and her criticisms of the bank. That is what we are here for. Both of Her Majesty's loyal oppositions do an earnest job in holding us to account, and I thank them for their advocacy. It should come as no surprise that

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, what the hon. member just said is precisely the point. She seemed to suggest in her speech that only large communities can benefit from large projects and that rural and smaller communities cannot. In the case specifically of getting communities off diesel or coal, t

Infrastructure  Madam Speaker, recently our government joined the Province of Manitoba, the City of Winnipeg, for an important announcement. The city will be using more than $12.2 million in its annual allocation of the federal gas tax fund created by a Liberal government for improvements to its

Infrastructure  Madam Speaker, the implementing legislation gives flexibility to the bank. Our plan is to invest $15 billion out of a more than $180 billion transformational plan. It is worth repeating. The vast majority of our plan will be delivered through traditional infrastructure funding m