Government Operations committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. Carlton will start the first part of our opening statement and I'll continue with the second part, if that meets with your pleasure.

Government Operations committee  Thank you, Brock. In the 2009 budget, Parliament set aside $5 billion in new federal stimulus funding for provincial, territorial, and municipal infrastructure projects. Today municipalities are matching federal investments in their communities. We manage stimulus projects from

Government Operations committee  Two pages? Thank you. Crisis management is never perfect, and there are important lessons we must learn from this experience, lessons that we need to act on. The country must put every single stimulus dollar to work creating jobs in cities and communities. Federal, provincial, a

Government Operations committee  Thank you for the question. The position at present is that funding will be terminated come the deadline of March 2011. After that municipalities will have to finish the projects by themselves.

Government Operations committee  Of course that is speculation at this time. I think when municipalities applied, they knew there was a finite window they had to work within. However, as I mentioned in my speech, things happen in discussions between the federal and provincial governments, or within construction

Government Operations committee  I'm afraid I can't answer that question. I don't know. I do know, however, that FCM has advocated for a gas-tax-like funding program for several reasons, as we explained previously. However, we have also worked with application-based programs before very successfully. I'm afraid

Government Operations committee  Yes, I was. Thank you. Of course, the gas tax has always flowed money to meet local needs with efficiency and accountability, as you've mentioned. That's, of course, why municipalities supported its introduction in 2005 and its extension in 2008 by the present government. And th

Government Operations committee  Thank you. You've posed a very interesting question. I'm sure the government recognizes the problems of the deadline. Speaking--

Government Operations committee  Yes, that is what they have said. And I believe that if you want to make sure somebody is going to do something, you set a deadline. Having said that, though--talking about my kids--even though I've set deadlines, sometimes when we get near the deadline and we get pushed, things

Government Operations committee  That's a very interesting question, and of course it asks for an opinion on my behalf. You asked if I believed that they conspired. I can't answer that. I have no way of knowing. I read the newspapers like everybody else, and that's as much as my level of knowledge goes. I'm sorr

Government Operations committee  Thank you for that. Actually, the reception has been very good in all of those cases, and that's one reason we advocated for the continuance and the permanence of the gas tax, which has been a large stimulus and has been very well received. I certainly thank the government for s

Government Operations committee  We are.

Government Operations committee  No.

Government Operations committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. I wish I could give you more statistics other than what Mike has already given. But these are our key messages. One, our biggest concern is about the stimulus package and what happens after it's gone. We're worried about a long-term infrastructure defici

Transport committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. Before I start, I'd like to thank and recognize UBCM, one of our provincial association partners, for joining us today to provide details from the front lines in B.C. I have with me our CEO, Mr. Brock Carlton, and Mr. Mike Buda