Alfred Moses

No, I appreciate the honesty and the comments made by the Member. As I mentioned, one fund that we are looking at is the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program that would help address some of the water and possibility sewage needs some of our communities.

The little increase that we did get in this budget will look at priorities of which municipalities need their infrastructure upgraded. We are going to be looking at that when this budget passes, but I really appreciate the Member's comments. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. With the presentation that we had given to committee a while back, I know that there is some possible federal funding that we can utilize. As we bring that definition forward, we will be able to see. I can’t say right now if it is a core need. I will look into that, and I will get back to the Member.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's Mr. Robert Tordiff, the assistant deputy minister for MACA. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The municipalities get separate O and M funding, and they are free to use that for any special projects that they want to do outside of what the core needs are. That is really up to the municipalities when they go through their capital budgets. Thank you.

We always try to work closely with our partners, especially within the department. We keep them apprised of how many housing tenants we have and let them know of the programs that we are doing, especially with the tenants. When these programs came into place, we directly contacted the tenants to let them know what was going on. Our local housing organizations also give that information on what we are doing moving forward, but we do keep a good communication with all of our departments right across the government with our programs and how it can possibly impact their programs that they run as...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don’t have that detail. I can provide it, though, to the Member. It is increased funding, and it is addressing some of the core needs that I had mentioned earlier: the roads, solid waste, those kind of things. I will get that information for the Member. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. To the Member’s first comment there, when it comes to, I guess, like, some of the, I guess it would be, O and M materials, we do go by standard design. We work with the NWTAC. When we look at purchasing, we do group purchases so that it is available should something happen. I take the Member’s comments that, when we are looking at negotiating with federal government, that we do take everything into consideration. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The strategy that you will see before you is going to be also through the O and M. We will also be looking at that in the O and M budget. What we have right now is, all we're talking about is, capital. When we recognize the capital, it is on a quarterly basis. As I mentioned, one of the ways we are trying to adjust that is through some of our federal funding agreements to try to offset some of those core need infrastructure in some of the communities. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I mentioned, we are looking at working on it again. We put a delay on it since there was an election coming up. I would say, probably the earliest that we might be able to see it, I would say, is in February.

Just for clarity, is that what the core needs are in the community, or what is outside of it or just the core needs? Sorry, I missed part of the question there.