Transport committee  Sure. You're right that municipalities didn't receive stimulus funding perhaps because they didn't have projects that could be completed by March 31, 2011; they didn't put them forward knowing that they wouldn't get them done. So there would surely be concern in some of those com

Transport committee  I'm not familiar with that specific example, but the situation you've described actually happens in municipalities in any federal-provincial-municipal one-third cost-share program. Municipalities are actually more than a one-third cost-share partner in most of these projects beca

Transport committee  It will depend on the fiscal capacity of the municipality, but, as I said, all municipalities go into federal infrastructure programs with their eyes open. Anyone who has renovated their house knows that things almost never go exactly as planned; municipalities know that if the p

Transport committee  The notion is that all municipalities knew the deadline was March 31, 2011. In most cases they selected their shovel-ready projects for completion by March 31, 2011, in early winter of 2009, so it was a year and a half ago. In fact it was even before the budget announced the sti

Transport committee  In my job at FCM I spend a lot of time on the phone with our members, who are usually phoning us and asking how we can help them solve their problems related to the infrastructure stimulus fund and to ensure that their projects get done. In the vast majority of cases, municipalit

Transport committee  Certainly, our members discussed that extensively in December 2008 and January 2009, before the stimulus funds were announced. Even at that time, most of our members understood that it would be difficult to undertake legacy projects if the government's intention for this program

Transport committee  Yes, that's true. I know I've spoken to municipalities in Alberta who signed exactly that form when they applied for the funding and then waited seven or eight months before they got their approval. You're right, all municipalities went into this knowing what the guideline was.

Transport committee  It's just gives us the time we need to finish the project so that the federal share of the total project cost can be reimbursed to the municipal government. In some cases, construction costs might be decreased, because of course if you can spread the time to complete a project o

Transport committee  Obviously you'd have to ask our provincial association counterparts, but in all cases, this is a three-way cash-sharing program. Provinces always have to be involved. Indeed, I think it's important for committee members to understand it's not just the federal government that need

Transport committee  Exactly.

Transport committee  It will depend, I think, on how those unanticipated costs occurred. As I said, municipalities chose projects to be completed by the deadline based on their understanding of when they would get approval from the federal and provincial governments. When you plan a complex infrastru

Transport committee  I think it depends on why they didn't have enough time to meet those unanticipated events. In some cases, they have enough time to do it; in some cases, they don't. If they don't have enough time because of delays in project approvals that were the result of provincial and federa

Transport committee  Well, I think you've put your finger on the head of quite a few important issues. At the end of the day, I think everyone here has been very clear that this program is working extremely well. There are challenges in a small number of communities at this point. But you're right, a

Transport committee  Yes.

Transport committee  Yes, the last time I spoke to the department, they had data from the March 31 progress reports, as you know. Of course, they, themselves, cautioned that the March 31 reports weren't going to show a lot of activity in the case of many projects, because they wouldn't have been able