Hon. Denise Batters: Senator Loffreda, in your remarks you briefly mentioned the Canada Infrastructure Bank and said how that was a lesson to be learned from as you referred to the Infrastructure Bank as being “slow to get off the ground.”

The last I heard, this particular Infrastructure Bank had spent $35 billion and did not yet have one project completed. Do you have information that is different than that?

Senator Loffreda: I mentioned it as part of the budget implementation act, or BIA, to not repeat those errors that have happened with respect to the Infrastructure Bank. But the Infrastructure Bank is not part of this BIA, as you know. At times it is not easy to start a corporation. A start-up is never easy. It takes a lot of effort, resources and the right people in place. I am confident that, with the Canada innovation corporation, we’ll get the right people and resources in place. We saw with the Canada Growth Fund that the right measures have been taken and going forward it will help the economy.

With respect to the Infrastructure Bank, I don’t think it’s relevant in our discussion here, but you could ask the government that question in one of your questions during Question Period and they will have the up-to-date information. I’m certain that they do have that up-to-date information. But I want to keep it relevant to the BIA, and not everything in the budget makes it to the BIA. I’m willing to answer economic questions if there are any. But I will leave the Infrastructure Bank up to the government to respond to that issue.

Hon. Donald Neil Plett (Leader of the Opposition): When you speak French, half the time we are not getting the translation before you move on. We simply cannot keep up. The other way is going okay, but I want to understand what you’re saying. So we need either for you, Your Honour, to slow down or for them to speed up.