Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have been working very closely with the community for the last six months because of the major problems they have been having with their landfill site. Under page 4-35, under the item water and sewer services subsidy, there is an amount of $250,000 included in there as a contribution towards the extra costs they were forced into because of the environmental protection order.
The second issue that has been raised from the town, and I am still working with the SAO on, is the issue that there are a number of families in that community who are on truck delivery service. Under the old formula for the water and sewer subsidy program, there was nothing being provided to the community of Fort Smith for those families.
I talked with the SAO several weeks ago and he is going to be providing me the data I need to build into the formula, if you will, so that I can put forward the case that would allow it to be funded under this particular subsidy program.
I understand there is the issue there, but I do not have the information on the number of families, the consumption, how much it is actually costing them to operate those services. He has assured me that information is coming.
The other thing I would say as well is this whole water and sewer subsidy policy is one of the areas that needs to be totally looked at as a department. It is on the work plan for this summer to begin that work.