Transport committee  Oh, that second question is quite something. On the first part, we, as a country, have taken very good steps in taking time to be very thoughtful about learning from phase one and developing lessons learned and then applying those lessons in the bilateral agreements that are com

Transport committee  There's no question. We've been saying for many, many years that the preference is the allocation-based formula. There's long-term, predictable funding, municipalities see the money coming, they can bank it, they can borrow against it, they can do bigger projects, and there isn't

Transport committee  Yes, for sure. Fifty million dollars was allocated to FCM to develop a national program on asset management capacity building. We have been working very closely with associations like our colleagues here at the table, and other provincial and territorial associations across the

Transport committee  No, I don't think we do share that. We certainly are paying attention and watching for any lag that may happen, but the bilateral agreements have been negotiated in fairly short order. The minister had said that we would have these done by the end of March-early April, and he has

Transport committee  If you take those numbers from Quebec and project them across the country, it's the same story. I think that perhaps the professor from the University of Ottawa, with whom I get a sense that you don't really agree, which is probably a good thing.... One of the comments I would ma

Environment committee  Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Thank you for receiving us today. I look around the room and I see friends and colleagues whom I've worked with over many years. It's nice to see you, nice to engage in this conversation. It's so important. FCM certainly welcomes this opportu

Environment committee  No, I wouldn't agree with that, not that I disagree with meaningful public consultation. I agree with meaningful public consultation. What I don't agree with is lumping municipal government into something as generic as public participation. Municipal governments are governments a

Environment committee  As I said in my comments, the fact that we have this middle ground that captures undefined structure between minor and major works, if the act doesn't change, means there will be more municipal projects under review than if we did not review the definition of the minor works orde

Environment committee  Potentially.

Environment committee  Within the limits of the Constitution, yes.

Environment committee  I think we're fairly clear that the municipalities have a bylaw-making capacity and that that bylaw capacity needs to be respected within the constraints of the Constitution as it exists. To your first point, we believe that municipalities need to be identified separate from a p

Environment committee  We're recommending some changes so that the timeliness of the review process is appropriate. As we say, in some instances we think the timelines need to be defined and adhered to so that we don't end up with endless delays. When we look at the National Energy Board work and the

Environment committee  We don't really have a position on that.

Environment committee  Three thousand of my closest friends.

Environment committee  We think it's a step in the right direction. There's work to be done, improvements to be made that we've identified in the comments today and in the submissions that we've made. I think I said there were nine submissions over the life of this consultation process.