Thank you, Mr. Chairman. When I met with the board about three weeks ago with my assistant deputy minister, Vern Christiansen, I was expressing the hope that I did not believe it would be a large cut in the interim. I do not recall saying there would be no cuts.
At the time, the assistant deputy minister and I were not under the impression that there would be massive cuts. These are not massive, but at the same time letters were sent out to all communities last fall, letting them know that cuts were possible. As well, in our consultations on the municipal finance review last fall, it was recognized then that cuts may happen.
The reason I did not go out in the last month since I started and let communities know the exact figures is because this House has to approve those amounts before we can send out the letters and let them know how much they are getting. There certainly was no intention to mislead or in any way let them know there would be no cuts.