Mr. Chairman, just to give you an example of how Municipal and Community Affairs handles these situations. In Fort Simpson, as of the end of March, Fort Simpson reported an accumulated deficit of over $600,000. Municipal and Community Affairs' response to that was in June, Municipal and Community Affairs prepared a detailed review of financial concerns for the council and offered assistance in developing a revised budget and operating plan.
In August, Municipal and Community Affairs requested a revised budget and operating plan that reflected the deficit recovery. In September, the village requested Municipal and Community Affairs' assistance to develop the revised budget and so on. Work is scheduled to commence on October 25 and 26 and so on, so I am not sure what has happened since. Municipal and Community Affairs does follow through in any of these situations where they find they are in trouble.
In the case of Fort McPherson, when the accumulated deficit of $55,382 was reported on March 31st, there was an initial meeting between Municipal and Community Affairs and the council. I think that happened in early October. Council has since asked to review the matter with their administrator prior to responding to Municipal and Community Affairs' offer of assistance to develop a revised budget and operating plan. In each of these cases, it is not just a matter of picking up the deficit and bringing it back to the government. Municipal and Community Affairs does work closely with them to revise their budgets and develop an operating plan that is going to help them recover from the debt situation that they find themselves in.