Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I just want to follow up on my Member’s statement and ask the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs about the plan to assist communities in acquiring highway rescue vehicles. What state is that and how much work has been done to date?
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There was a report done a few years ago that recommended that this be looked into. It’s something that the departments of MACA and Health and Social Services have identified as a priority. Money is available in the budget that we will be hopefully debating on the floor of this House to enhance some of the programming to the communities.
Has there been support from some of the committees that the government has established to look at this issue and to carry forward? Like I said in my Member’s statement, Fort Simpson has many highways and it is a regional centre. I certainly support getting them a highway rescue vehicle.
There is support of communities out there and their support from all levels involved. It’s just a matter of identifying. Also there’s the communities themselves who have their capital money flowed from MACA that they could use for mobile equipment. Also there’s some federal funding that can be accessed. MACA is committed to going into the communities and helping them work out a plan to see what pots of funding they can access.
Just at what point will the department be initiating contact and speaking with the Village of Fort Simpson in terms of coming up with a plan and a strategy to address this lack of equipment?
The department will probably be in contact with the village very soon. It is a priority and I’m sure with the Member raising the issue that we need to expedite this. But I have informed the Member that through correspondence MACA will be in contact with the community to get this moving forward.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. As well, it looks like there’s got to be some federal involvement here. At what point would we be involved in the federal department to assist or what program would that be then?
The involvement of the federal government would be on the funding that they have available for this particular highway. It’s called the Joint Emergency Preparedness Program and that is the program that they will be able to access some funding under. When MACA meets with the community they will be able to relay that information on to them and make them aware of all the potential pots of money that they can access.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
