Transport committee  Adam will answer part of that, but I would say that it is not fair to say that costs have increased on roads, etc., at around inflation rate and property tax has increased by inflation. The demand on the property tax has increased more than inflation, because more things have bee

Transport committee  I'm not going to get into who's downloading on what, because you're right: there's a lot of downloading from the provinces. My comment is more that the property tax is being stretched farther for more things now than it was in 1985. Do you want to...?

Transport committee  As we said before, the degree of downloading since 1985, the date you mentioned earlier, is a significant burden on the municipalities. It stretches the property tax beyond what it was intended to do and stretches the municipal coffers so they can't continue to provide the kinds

Transport committee  I'm sorry, what was the last part of the question?

Transport committee  Whether they're legislated or not, I couldn't go through each country and say yes or no. What's important for us is that there is a need for a long-term view on the transit question and the broader question of infrastructure. There is a need for the kinds of principles I laid out

Transport committee  I don't have a list of them with me, no.

Transport committee  Absolutely. What's important for us and our members is the understanding of the critical nature of infrastructure in this country, the importance of urban transit within that broader question in the larger and medium-sized communities, and the negative economic impacts of the lac

Transport committee  Part of the question is what are the principles that are going to guide the national effort? I named a couple of principles earlier, but one of them is accountability at all orders of government so Canadians understand that what's going on is transparent, and the folks who are ma

Transport committee  I can't give you the figure you asked for in the first part of your question. We don't have that kind of data, and we don't have that historical analysis. I would certainly say that there has been significant federal investment in specific projects and specific locations over ti

Transport committee  Yes.

Transport committee  Yes.

Transport committee  In some ways we have been, in that we worked very closely with the government on the economic action plan. I think we played a leadership role in helping to shape that with Minister Baird and his office and with your government. As we talk about fulfilling the commitment in the

Transport committee  I would agree that it is not the role of the federal government to tell municipalities to do something. That is why we feel it is important that the federal government play a leadership role at the national level and establish, further to consultation, certain principles to guide

Transport committee  Should there be a long-term infrastructure plan and should there be some resources earmarked for such a plan—whether it be a program, indexation of the gas tax or something else—specific resources could be allocated to the municipalities that need them for public transit. However

Transport committee  As we have said, the important thing is that if there is an infrastructure plan with certain principles and resources in place, then municipalities can see long term. The beauty of the gas tax is that municipalities have a stable, predictable resource outside of the property tax,