Hon. Elizabeth Marshall: Minister, welcome to the Senate of Canada.

In the lead-up to the creation of the Canada Infrastructure Bank in 2017, we were told by your government that the bank would attract $4 to $5 of private investment for every dollar of government funding. As you know, this has not been the case — far from it, in fact. When the CEO of the Infrastructure Bank appeared before our Senate’s National Finance Committee in February, he told us that he believed that it would take decades to move to the 4-to-1 ratio.

When you appeared in a House committee in February of last year, you acknowledged you weren’t satisfied with the bank’s ability to raise funds from private investors. Therefore, minister, since you weren’t satisfied with the bank’s ability to raise funds from the private sector, have you asked the Infrastructure Bank when they expect to reach the 4-to-1 ratio? If so, what did they tell you? If you didn’t ask them, why didn’t you?