Transport committee  Absolutely, and the empirical data also confirms that. We have approximately 15 investment categories, and transit is always if not number one then number two. In fact, a lot of municipalities have decided to dedicate the totality of their gas tax funds to transit. Even though i

Transport committee  Yes. The philosophy behind the design of the programs has always been that we need partners to come forth and bring us their priorities to consider within what's to be funded. That is as opposed to going out and saying that this is what we want to see funded, so bring us projects

Transport committee  This is an important question, and I think it will be a central question in the consultations for the next infrastructure plan.

Transport committee  Absolutely. Under the economic action plan there were two components. The first was the acceleration of the existing Building Canada fund moneys and that, in terms of transit, was in the order of $2.3 billion. The second component of the economic action plan was the introduct

Transport committee  Correct. They were—

Transport committee  Absolutely, because one of the design features of our programs, with the exception of the gas tax, is that municipalities have to put up a portion of the funding. They put forward their priorities, because nobody wants to fund not their own priorities.

Transport committee  In terms of the larger ones, two really stand out for me. One is the Spadina subway extension in Toronto, which is actually one of the largest projects in the history of the Government of Canada. That was also, I think, our first economic stimulus project in terms of the accelera

Transport committee  I'm saying if that service is provided by a public sector operator, it's very difficult for the Government of Canada to subsidize that. If, however, it's a service that would be operated in cooperation with the two municipalities at issue, in the example that you provided, that c

Transport committee  Yes, absolutely, because the service must be provided by a public organization and is intended for moving the people who are working.

Transport committee  Historically, the Government of Canada has put in place new infrastructures, which is still the case today. As for the future, it's an important public policy issue. In the future, we will have many more challenges concerning the rehabilitation of infrastructures. It's something

Transport committee  Yes, and we do that now, but it's under the guise of material rehabilitation. For instance, if somebody comes forward and says, “We want to upgrade this transit system, and at the end of the day it will still serve between point A and point B and will still only carry 100 peopl

Transport committee  Again, it's almost unheard of for a project to come forward to the federal government without urban planners having been involved in that project, so it's something that happens already. They come to us on a project basis. For instance, when the cities of Toronto, Montreal, or

Transport committee  The government has announced that the gas tax will be permanent at $2 billion per year. Until and unless that budgetary decision is turned over, it's $2 billion per year.

Transport committee  Well, $2 billion is a substantial amount of money for municipal infrastructure. You have to keep in mind that the gas tax fund is not cost-shared. It's essentially a base funding for municipalities. What the proper quantum should be is really a governmental decision, and the depa

Transport committee  Intercity bus transit right now is primarily private-sector driven. To the extent that the federal government participates, it participates largely though the subsidization of VIA Rail, which, as you know, is a significant ongoing subsidy. I think there is a role for the Governme