Caroline Cochrane

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Department of Municipal and Community Affairs is all about providing support and services to the communities, so we are aware that there may be some difficulties with communities. One of them may be cost factors, so we are looking at that, and we are trying to make sure that we provide the proper support -- it is not an option -- so that communities can actually implement this in the most comprehensive way possible. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to bring witnesses.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Department of Municipal and Community Affairs is committed to maintaining the multisport games. We will provide funding for the games either through internal funding and/or through lottery funding which was done throughout the years. It was never only funded through the internal funding or through this funding. I believe this was brought forward in 2009. Previous to that, it was funded through the lotteries, and many years we have had to dip into both. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We have asked the consultant to actually look at all options. Air rescue might be an option if it's quite a ways away, but, if it's only a kilometer or two from a centre then, of course, that wouldn't make sense; it wouldn't be as cost-effective. So we've asked for all options, and we are looking forward to that report when it's finished. I would like to say that I'm just thinking that you can't determine where an accident is going to happen, so I think it would be having to look at all of the different methods instead of just one versus the other. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I do, thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I do not believe that we have done that to date, but I can commit that we will go to the organizations and explain it to them. We are meeting with them anyway. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So we're still in the process of actually defining all of the resources that will be needed to implement a proper ground ambulance highway rescue service. We have hired a consultant, so that process is going on right at this moment. We're hoping that that will be finished within the next couple of months. We have currently $185,000 that is for the communities that are providing the highway rescue service at this time. Previously, there were strict requirements on it, that they had to use it for defined services, defined by MACA. That was raised as an issue, I'm not sure...

I am well aware that this is not a federal government issue; this is a territorial issue. Like I said before, we are not finished the strategic plan. We are still working with the Association of Communities to deal with it. I would like to bring attention to, however, in my personal opinion, the territorial government is also underfunded, and that is a federal issue.

I empathize with all of the communities. I would love to have money that I could give to every community and every department. We all need money, but I think we are all well aware that the economy is not very good at this time, and...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. During the process of the 2017-2018 budget, this was brought to our attention. It was brought to our attention on many departments that were actually looking at providing the cuts over a number of years. This was presented to all MLAs, and the budget was passed at that time with the understanding that this was going to happen. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, that is correct. The Fire Prevention Act is being reviewed, and we are expecting that there will be changes within this Legislative Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Chair.