Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I am not getting a sense of priority or urgency on this matter from the Minister. Of course, the Office of the Auditor General report was released about six months ago, and the department was well aware of the items that were in the report before it was released. I am looking for a concrete answer as to when the department is going to invest in additional firefighting capacity into the communities. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Green. Ms. Young.

Thank you, Ms. Young. Ms. Green.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the answer. The money ultimately has to come from somewhere, and as the deputy minister has already pointed out, there is a significant underfunding of the communities, which has been quantified and it is well understood. In addition to the strategy being developed and produced this fall, when might we see the investment to close that gap? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister Cochrane.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The strategy to address the funding gap will be done in the fall of this year. However, it will take some time. In the meantime, we are trying to leverage capital infrastructure money for the communities through the federal investments in infrastructure. At that point, when we get that money, we are prioritizing the communities that have a deficit. We are trying to address it through that means, but we will not actually know a timeline and when it will totally be addressed until we have finished developing our plan to address the funding gap, which will be here this fall. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Cochrane. Ms. Green.

Those are all of my questions. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Ms. Green. Next, we have Mr. Testart.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to talk more about this funding gap. Out of this $27 million contribution to infrastructure, what is missing? What does the gap represent for, I believe it is called, CPI? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister Cochrane.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. At this time, it is approximately $23 million a year. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Cochrane. Mr. Testart.

Thank you. I just want to follow up on some of the line of questioning that my honourable friend from Yellowknife Centre made. The Minister made a comment that some of these emergency service needs, such as fire prevention, are going to be addressed by federal infrastructure programs. My understanding is that Infrastructure Canada does not have funding for emergency services infrastructure. Can the Minister address how that is being addressed if it is not through the federal funding programs? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister Cochrane.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. At this point, we are still in the process of negotiating with the federal government for the new infrastructure money. Currently, the National Disaster Mitigation Program only funds for flood zones, but we are hoping that they will extend that into other areas of emergency services. At this point, until we finish negotiations with the federal government, we cannot say whether they will be looking at emergency equipment. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Cochrane. Mr. Testart.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. If they do not, what then? How do we support our communities that have been identified as being in need through the most recent Auditor General Report? If that does not work, what are we going to do? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister Cochrane.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am hopeful that the federal government will understand that there are more emergency needs besides just flooding, but, if not, then it will be addressed when we look at our plan. Every community has to do a capital plan every year, and so, within that capital planning process, we try to assist them in identifying what their priorities are. When we finish the defining of all the assets, what they have, and their needs within their fire departments, then we will actually look at prioritizing on their capital asset planning process. At that time, then the communities would be responsible for putting aside the money or getting more revenues to purchase those equipment needs. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Cochrane. Mr. Testart.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just to comment on that approach, it is a prudent solution. However, there may be other infrastructure projects that local communities are focusing on, and, by the department encouraging them to prioritize certain things, it may take away from other stuff that is being planned. If there is any way we could provide the funding directly to them for this specific purpose, I think that would be a more equitable solution than potentially forcing communities to give up on other infrastructure projects that they have been planning for some time, but I will leave that with the Minister.

This funding gap, I have heard we are trying to address it. We have been trying to address it for a long time. The current estimates have flat funding for CPI, and I wonder if the Minister can let me know if the next capital planning cycle will see an increase to that, or are we going to maintain flat funding until this strategy is tabled? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister Cochrane.