Thank you.
Mr. Chair, this earpiece is cutting in and out. I don't know whether the technical staff can do anything about that, but in terms of amplification, it's not working very well.
Yes, I can talk about that, and then I will turn it over to the deputy for the more precise timing. For those who are interested in small craft harbours, which are many people across Canada—this is almost 1,000 small craft harbours—there was a lack of funding for 10 years into this program, and so there was a lot of backed-up maintenance that was needed when we were elected.
Since 2016, we've announced $784 million to invest in the small craft harbours program, and in this recent 2021 budget, there is $300 million. As I mentioned, there is a significant amount in the supplementary estimates.
What it takes to get from a budget to actually getting shovels in the ground are a set of steps. We want to do this on a needs basis, and there are almost a thousand of them. The first step is that staff in the regional offices collect information to evaluate the variety of proposed projects to do upgrades or replacements. They have a uniform set of criteria across all the regions.
The second step is that they make their evaluations on the safety and security as well as level of activity and value of catch. They feed that information in, and then the department conducts a national peer review of all the proposals across the country to determine which ones should be prioritized in a master five-year plan. Unfortunately, this does not mean there are going to be weeks between the funding and the action, and I know that people are very keen to get the job done.
Lastly, the department works with indigenous groups and community leaders in the planning and design of the specific project. At that point, the dollars can flow.
Perhaps the deputy minister can give a bit more—