Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the New Deal is proving to be a very good deal.

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The whole concept of the New Deal, Mr. Speaker, was an initiative to promote greater autonomy of the community governments and allow communities to set their own priorities. The calculation that was used for the formula took into consideration the replacement value of a basic package of infrastructure for the community and looked at replacing all of that infrastructure over a 20-year period.

We’ve worked really closely over the last while with the communities to develop long-term goals for infrastructure and also a plan to meet their short-term goals. We’ve really worked towards being very flexible and creating opportunities for governments to provide funding. The community governments have now more opportunity than they did historically. They have the ability to borrow

money. They have the ability to create partnerships, and they also can use some of their capital dollars as leverage to access other funding, such as funding from the federal government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.