Mr. Speaker, through you, I would like to recommend something to the parliamentary secretary.

It is the holiday season and time to shop for presents. This year, I would like to recommend a Christmas gift for him. It is a fascinating book written by a historian and available in any good book shop, especially in the Quebec City area. It is called Curieuses histoires du pont de Québec.

It begins with the opening of the Quebec Bridge in 1917. The roadway is added in 1929. In 1952, the Quebec Bridge is widened to three lanes. The book also mentions the construction of the Pierre Laporte bridge in 1970.

Perhaps my colleague will add a last chapter to this book about the painting of the Quebec Bridge. The Liberals promised and swore up and down in 2015 that it would be painted. Since then, we have described the situation in many ways: the paintbrushes are getting stiff, the paint is still in the can, taking action is a must to deal with the rust. We are running out of ways to spur the government to action.

The government is good at talking and making promises. It hired a very competent negotiator, Yvon Charest, on the Quebec Bridge purchase file. This negotiator's report was not made public, but we have learned from information leaked to the media that Mr. Charest is of the opinion that it is high time the federal government took ownership of the Quebec Bridge and implemented a maintenance plan.

Unfortunately, at this time, I do not have access to that report or any information on the implementation of the recommendations it contains. We are still waiting for the government to take real action, as it promised to do five years ago. We know that this was not the first time that the Liberals made promises they did not keep, but we would certainly like to be able to believe in Santa Claus during this holiday season.

To come back to the government's infrastructure program, the government invested huge sums of money in that program—specifically $187 billion, according to the Parliamentary Budget Officer, Yves Giroux. However, Mr. Giroux also indicated that the government does not have a plan and that there have been delays.

We know we are in the middle of a pandemic, but in October, the government announced $10 billion in infrastructure projects. We were excited about that because we have needs. For the first time in five years, the government finally announced some funding, but we did not know where the money would be spent. Unfortunately, once again the money will be transferred to the Canada Infrastructure Bank even though the bank has not financed a single project to date and has produced no concrete results.

Time flies when one has only four minutes to cover everything, so I will wrap up by saying that there are digital, drinking water and roadway infrastructure needs. It is high time the Liberals took action because the bridge is rusting.

We are asking the government to do something about the Quebec Bridge because the need is great. The bridge is an important piece of infrastructure for the Quebec City region. It is a heritage gem that has earned recognition internationally and from Canadian authorities.

My question is simple: When will the government stop making exciting announcements and actually start investing in the Quebec Bridge in particular and infrastructure in general?

Steven Blaney

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Adjournment Proceedings

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