Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, an issue has risen in my riding in regard to the new community funding arrangement that this government is going to have. How are they going to be funding communities to ensure the communities have the ability and resources to see the unforeseen costs that are going to become their responsibility? I am talking about costs such as the high energy costs we are starting to see, such as the cost of fuel in all of our communities and also the cost of the service sector, especially departments like Public Works for the communities.
In some cases, the budget for the municipal services has almost doubled because of the service agreements that are in place. In some cases, we are paying $58.00 an hour to have a service provided by an agent of this government. I think that these types of costs have to be built into any agreements we have with our municipalities.
Another concern I have is the communities that need to have services provided are not billed over and above the existing resources they have that are going to be distributed by this government.
Mr. Speaker, I think it is imperative that this arrangement does not fall in line with the previous agreements which we had with our communities which was the Operational Funding Contribution Agreements. Where it was actually broken down in regard to the number of facilities, the number of infrastructures, the length of roads, so you were able to actually see what the expenditures in those municipalities were when you were allocating funding.
The other concern I have heard from my constituents is on the high cost of infrastructure in our communities. You are now giving more responsibilities to the communities, but we are not giving them the resources to replace, enhance or improve the existing facilities in our communities.
A lot of our communities have facilities that go back to 20 years, which have not been replaced to date. A lot of capital items that were in the five-year capital plan are no longer there because of cuts in this department. In order for the communities to be able to take on these new initiatives, they have to find ways of generating new revenues. In most cases, these communities do not have the ability because of the lack of population.
So, Mr. Speaker, with that, I will be asking the Minister responsible for Finance questions on this matter later. Thank you.