I'm wondering if I can squeeze in a serious question without any politically affiliated slant to the answers.

Let's say that hypothetically, two and a half weeks from now, the sitting federal government has a press conference and announces funds of $1B for the Ring, to match the promised Ontario component.

How is that officially set into motion? Is there any sort of mechanism whereby it actually gets officially (and irrevocably) earmarked for the Ring?

Or do we have to wait and see if the sitting government is re-elected, and after that, to see if they get around to fulfilling that particular election promise a year or three later?

Seems to me that all the funding announcements in the world don't mean a thing in an election run-up. Remember the Ontario provincial government's promise to have a working Ring Development corporation set up and functional within sixty days of that election?