I think the frustration that communities are feeling is a result of the silos we've built up in government and the fact that they aren't talking to each other about priorities. The communities themselves are the ones that are caught in the crossfire, because they want to address this issue; they have a plan; they've invested money in the design of the project, yet the federal government is sitting on their application and hasn't gotten back to them and can't provide any information about where the project stands or when something might get fixed.
How do we do a better job of approaching these kinds of situations, which are happening all across Canada in communities of all sizes? The federal government doesn't have a dedicated fund for waste-water infrastructure, so waste-water projects are having to compete with every other kind of infrastructure project you can think of.
From a clean water perspective, from a fresh-water perspective, from an aquatic ecosystem perspective, how do we do a better job of addressing this issue? It seems as though right now the system isn't working. It's not working for Smithers, because they can't tell where the funding is or whether they're going to get it or whether they're going to be able to fix the problem.