Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have a Return to Oral Question asked by Mr. Krutko on June 17, 2002, regarding water and sewer operations agreements.

As suggested by the Standing Committee on Governance and Economic Development, Public Works and Services had updated the standard memorandum of understanding for water and sewer services. In order to comply with the Financial Administration Manual directive 901, section 4.1.1, on charges for a service to the public, the changes from the previous agreement include:

• • Recalculating the administration fee and clarifying the tasks covered. The administration fee is now 5 percent. Tasks include payroll, leave and attendance, office equipment and supplies, duplication, processing and storage of records, cost of invoicing and reconciliation of invoices and system support.
• • Calculating a planning and management fee to cover management and supervision. This fee is 11 percent and covers costs incurred by Public Works and Services to provide services such as planning and budgeting, supervision of on-site staff, management of contracted services, procurement of supplies and materials and troubleshooting.
• • Setting charges at the hourly rate for provision of administrative services to make additional support documentation available to the community when requested.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.