Transport committee  I would say that a dollar spent on infrastructure at any time will typically outperform a dollar in tax cuts in terms of job creation, simply because infrastructure spending almost overwhelmingly stays in the domestic economy. There's very little leakage outside. Most of the labo

Transport committee  I'd have to talk to our economist who did it. I would say two things. One, you've probably got us on that one. That kind of administrative transactional cost probably isn't captured. I'd be surprised if that would make up the kind of difference we're talking about, but it's a g

Transport committee  Yes, I have already heard about something like that. We have to study this particular challenge. I believe there are a number of reasons. Perhaps there is a shortage of contractors and companies. In some cases, there is just a lot of work. But there are also very small communitie

Transport committee  Through our discussions with Infrastructure Canada, we know--and I think the department deserves credit for this--that they certainly did see projects coming in below budget. They were very determined to use that, to pick up those savings and invest them in additional stimulus pr

Transport committee  Let's be clear: the next couple of years won't be easy either. Most of the Building Canada funding has been allocated. The main source of funding from the federal government will be the federal gas tax, and there will be a few tough years. Municipalities themselves had to find th

Transport committee  What we know--and probably everyone around this table knows--about infrastructure is that it's a never-ending job. You build it, you have to maintain it, you have to repair it, and someday you have to replace it. As a country, we're only starting--and only have just started in th

Transport committee  I think it's a good question. Frankly, a question we hear more frequently from municipalities on the issue of fairness is the fairness of a system in which they propose stimulus projects and the federal and provincial governments choose and then tell them which projects are goin

Transport committee  Frankly, one of the difficult things in talking about the stimulus plan is the different ways in which progress is measured. I'm not exactly sure of the source of that particular figure, but I can tell you one thing that is important to know, which is that many of the projects we

Transport committee  I have not heard about a situation as serious and specific as the one you have described, but it is one of the things that people have mentioned. In my view, that is exactly why we need to hold a discussion specifically on the situation in Quebec. We get the impression that aspe

Transport committee  In our conversations with the Union des municipalités du Québec, a number of factors were mentioned, including the availability of materials. The association has more information on this, but we think that all these factors are much worse and more serious because the deadline is