Thanks, Mr. Chairman. This department is, I think overall, doing a good job of assuming a growing mantle of responsibility, and it's with some confidence that I look forward to going through this budget and the business plan. That is not to say they can take it easy, because there will be a lot of attention focused on the evolution of municipal government and our oversight and our stewardship of how communities can operate.
An area that I wanted to go into, Mrs. Groenewegen and I think Ms. Lee might have touched on it, and it is these, I won't call them windfalls, but these substantial cash pots, Mr. Chairman, that have come our way or at least the prospect of them. We always have to remind ourselves, for instance, that the $5 million over 10-year socio-economic impact fund is merely a promise; a big one. I sure want it to happen. But it is still there and I still believe we should go forward planning on the assumption that it will happen. There's $35 million in gas tax revenue over the next five years; $35 million in Northern Strategy money.
The aspect of this, especially where this department comes into play, is in having some oversight function, if you will, to see where the discretion and the jurisdiction of the communities comes into play, where our own mandates and jurisdiction come into play. In looking for areas where, obviously, there may be overlap or duplication in some thinking and planning again in jurisdiction or, conversely, Mr. Chairman, some major gaps in what could or should be good places to spend money.
So I wanted to ask the department if, of course assuming that it agrees with me that it has a front-line function with communities and that there is a lot of money coming into play in the next little while, how does it propose to go about this coordination and hopefully collaboration that we can undertake with the communities, Mr. Chairman?