Transport committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Members of the committee, the Union of Quebec Municipalities eagerly accepted the invitation to participate in your committee's examination of how competition can make infrastructure dollars go further. This is a very important issue and one that we are in

Transport committee  The new program will come into effect in 2014. I would say we are almost there. This being April of 2013, the federal government should initiate negotiations with the government of Quebec immediately so the new plan can be brought into effect in 2014. They should not wait as they

Transport committee  In fact, no, it did not work that way. Actually, the projects were not approved, and so we did not have to invest. Any project could be eligible for a tripartite grant, that is, from the federal, municipal and provincial levels. The projects have to be approved prior to work bei

Transport committee  I am perhaps going to answer your question a different way. The key partner at the municipal level is the FCM. In fact, it is the federal government's interlocutor. When there were discussions, Quebec was called in. We did submit our study that defined the infrastructure deficit

Transport committee  That was $5.8 billion annually.

Transport committee  In terms of experience in Quebec, the representatives in the House of Commons need to be informed that P3s have not had great success in Quebec. From memory, I can say there have been two projects in Quebec. Regardless of the size of the municipality, whether it is a city the siz

Transport committee  No. I am not saying we do not advocate it. I am saying that the success of the P3 initiative has perhaps not met expectations.

Transport committee  As I was saying, certainly we hope the programs will be expanded to other types of infrastructure. In the area of drinking water, nearly all of the projects have been completed. We have other types of infrastructure where we have to go beyond that, to ensure our residents' qualit

Transport committee  We have indeed looked into this issue. However, as I said earlier in relation to the infrastructure deficit, it was not as sharply defined as what you have just said. It would mean that the envelope would be even larger than what we have discussed. In fact, we are extremely happ

Transport committee  In fact, the first dedicated fund, which relates to the gas tax, is an extremely useful program. To answer your question, I have the impression we are on thin ice...

Transport committee  ...and we have to be careful about proposing things.

Transport committee  I will speak as the mayor. If we have dedicated funds, taking the size of the envelope into account, someone, somewhere, will...

Transport committee  They will not necessarily have more. Rather, I would say that some will have less because of the content of the envelope. I should perhaps answer your question by saying we should look at specific cases rather than having dedicated funds. That is why I say we are on thin ice.

Transport committee  That's correct.

Transport committee  We held discussions about what we asked for from the federal government. We also met with both the government party and the opposition parties to sell our project. It was really more a question of basic infrastructure and expanding the program. As you said, Canada-wide structurin