Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. McLeod.

Mr. Chairman, we certainly can take a look at it. We don't pay for ambulances. We don't reimburse towns or cities for ambulances. I believe the Department of Health and Social Services has a program that they use. I'm not sure. Our only responsibility in this case for ambulance services is in our legislation and there is provision so the communities can set by-laws that will allow for ambulance services and state the rules around it. But we can check again. My staff has informed me that we do not pay for ambulances. We have helped communities apply for funding to purchase rescue vehicles and ambulances through the federal program, but that's the extent of our involvement.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Ms. Lee.

Sorry, this will be my last question. I don't want to belabour this point. Could the Minister indicate whether MACA has anything to do with, say, snowmobile accidents on a lake near a municipality? Don't their

emergency response sections respond to that, or are all the services provided by nearby municipalities? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. McLeod.

Mr. Chairman, no, we don't have that responsibility. We don't provide responses to those types of situations.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think I actually was on the right page, although we're probably not officially describing it in this way. I think the Minister is right that he doesn't have specific authority, but I guess I'm seeking further certainty on this because the Minister does provide block funding to these municipalities, specifically the City of Yellowknife. Who would the Minister direct the City of Yellowknife to respond to these incidents outside of the municipal boundary because, at this time, the city is in a position where they're funded directly from Municipal and Community Affairs, however, the City of Yellowknife is responding again outside the municipal boundaries. Who would the Minister suggest would be in control of that authority to direct the City of Yellowknife to respond to an emergency? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm not sure if the Minister had said this earlier, but could we just get recognition of there having been a one-time funding in recent history that helped pay and support the City of Yellowknife for the cost associated with responding to some of these calls outside the city of Yellowknife municipal boundaries? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. McLeod.

Mr. Chairman, my comments were that there was assistance with an application to get some federal funding. Historically there have been a number of communities that have accessed this funding and we have assisted them by putting their application together.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Were there any dollars spent under the capacity of the Municipal and Community Affairs department that helped pay for that problem? The funding source or paying for the lack of funding, at the existing time, does that refer back to paying for ambulance services, et cetera, outside the municipal boundaries? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. McLeod.

Mr. Chairman, I believe there was some money put towards the rescue vehicle in Hay River and also some money towards the vehicle in Fort McPherson. I'm not sure about Yellowknife. It was quite a while ago and I couldn't confirm whether that was the same situation. But there were some capital dollars provided for the vehicles in Fort McPherson and Hay River.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm not sure why we're talking about Fort McPherson and capital dollars. I wasn't worried about capital dollars. I was more worried about operational dollars and the cost of this. Was there any type of one-time funding to assist in the past to help cover some of those types of bills under the area of MACA? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. McLeod.

No, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Hawkins.

Actually, I'll take the rest of the commitments home, lock them away from this Minister that he will investigate this problem. I know he'll turn every stone over to help us find proper funding for this service that needs to be done. I'm just going to roll into small comments, which are simply that the City of Yellowknife is obliged to provide these services. Be it goodwill services or simply it's just the darn right thing to do. We can call it whatever we want and I can't imagine the City of Yellowknife not responding to anything which would be within their ability.

The problem we have to recognize is if we have to send an ambulance out of the city, it doesn't really matter, out of the city is enough to emphasize that we don't have services in the city directly to respond at that time. That means they have to call in additional resources in order to keep a base capacity up to a certain level. There is a standard to be set. The further out, we have to recognize, the more expensive it is. If the City of Yellowknife is now responding to calls past Prelude, maybe it's time to talk about the adjustments of the municipal boundaries or maybe it's time to discuss municipal funding, et cetera, and all those related things. I think the Minister has agreed to have a discussion on this topic in the future, so I will leave it at that. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.