Thank you, Mr. Chairman. For the phone-in system, I recognize that it works in some communities where you have a large majority of the people in houses with phones, but there are many communities that don't have phones in every household. For any individual who would have to notify the fire department, they would have to get to a phone first. Sometimes that isn't practical in the middle of winter or in the middle of the night when people are sleeping and things are secure for the evening.

That is why I have some concerns with the phone-in and pager systems that MACA has been recommending to municipalities to use at this time. The Minister has indicated that there was a fire protection study undertaken in 1993; how extensive was that study? Would it have assessed whether or not the fire alerting systems in our municipalities were adequate? Firstly, that would be to address some of the issues I have raised previously. Secondly, to address the growth in some of our communities where new subdivisions have come forward that may not have full access to fire alerting systems.