Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I think just touching on the area of equipment, as a government, we have to ensure that our firefighters are operating with the equipment, especially with our fire trucks.
I have received some information from the department that there are quite a few communities that have fire trucks that are almost 20 years old. I think nowadays, with people getting certified with class one and what not, mostly the transmission systems are all air systems. Basically, you are talking an 18-speed or 15-speed. These things are cadillacs and the model, a lot of them have a double shift. You have to have certain skills to operate this piece of equipment because back then, it was a you-find-them-and-grind-them sort of way to drive these vehicles. These vehicles are now coming to a point where they are having some major problems with breakdowns.
To ensure the safety of the firefighters, we have to replace these vehicles, hopefully sooner rather than later. I would like to ask the Minister, what are you doing to ensure that the fire equipment, such as fire trucks, is being replaced so our volunteer firemen can have the equipment to fight fires without having to worry about that equipment breaking down on them?