Caroline Cochrane

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll let the deputy minister, Eleanor Young, address that answer.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. At this point, we are still in the process of negotiating with the federal government for the new infrastructure money. Currently, the National Disaster Mitigation Program only funds for flood zones, but we are hoping that they will extend that into other areas of emergency services. At this point, until we finish negotiations with the federal government, we cannot say whether they will be looking at emergency equipment. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize two of the nursing and social work students from the Range Lake riding, Ms. Kathie Pender and Ms. Shenel Cruz. I just want to say that nursing and social work are two very honourable fields. One of them is myself, a social work degree; it's about caring for people, and I give my humblest respect for all of the students. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, it is important for all of the communities to actually do the Asset Management Strategy. It is a requirement under the Federal Gas Tax Fund. We are right now piloting 10 communities with the Asset Management Strategy. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The strategy to address the funding gap will be done in the fall of this year. However, it will take some time. In the meantime, we are trying to leverage capital infrastructure money for the communities through the federal investments in infrastructure. At that point, when we get that money, we are prioritizing the communities that have a deficit. We are trying to address it through that means, but we will not actually know a timeline and when it will totally be addressed until we have finished developing our plan to address the funding gap, which will be here this fall...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to acknowledge that, yes, it has been 10 years, actually, since we have done the new deal. It is almost time to call it an old deal, but I do not want to bring the connotations with that. Until we actually look at how we are going to address the funding gap, then I can commit that things will stay status quo until we have a solid plan of how we are going to address it. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Department of Municipal and Community Affairs is just in the middle of developing a strategy that will be finalized in the fall of this year, and at that point we will identify areas that we need to move further on. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. You look totally different now. It kind of caught me off guard. Yes, the communities actually can use their capital funding to actually borrow money. The Department of Municipal and Community Affairs does have guidelines around how that can be utilized, though. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. You will not see any capital investments in the 911 during this fiscal year. It will be coming within the next fiscal year. We are still doing the work that needs to take place, such as mapping out communities, figuring out receiving calls, receiving in the communities, et cetera. The actual investment in capital will be in the next fiscal year, if we need any at that time. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The honourable Member is incorrect. Actually, last year's funding did not have any increase for capital; it was only for operating and maintenance. This year is the same, so we have been trying to leverage the funding through the federal government to address the capital needs at this point.

I think it should be noted, though, at this point the capital for the next two years, the gas tax went up 2 per cent last year, was what he was talking about. With the federal infrastructure money the communities are actually fine for the two years because of the federal infrastructure...