Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thanks for your brevity. We actually probably have a lot of questions for you, so I appreciate that. Thank you for the background material.
Going to your background materials, Mr. Wernick, I note that you emphasize that “an issue of great concern to the government” is safe drinking water. You also mention the safe drinking water bill, which of course is going through the House right now. It's finally in the House after being in the Senate for a while. You state that it “will enable the federal government to work with First Nations on a region by region basis, to create enforceable regulatory standards”.
Here is my first question for you, Mr. Wernick. Given the statement that safe drinking water for first nations is of great concern to the government, it's rather surprising that in the main estimates this year, there was a reduction of $159.2 million for water and waste water. The rationale given for that is that the waste water action plan ended in March of this year. Given the purported concern of the government for safe drinking water and for maintaining protection of the source water, I look forward to an explanation as to why they would not renew that for the long term so that there would be certainty of that funding.
My concern, and the concern of the first nations, goes hand in glove with the report from the national engineering assessment that more than a billion dollars is needed to bring all first nation water supplies up to the standards most Canadians benefit from. An estimated additional $80 million, according to the government-funded national engineering assessment, is needed for training, source water protection, and emergency response. Yet given the clear estimate by the independent engineering assessment that a billion dollars is needed, and when we have more than 100 first nation communities still on boil-water advisories, no new money is allocated in supplementary (A)s, as far as I can see. Then $136 million appears in supplementary (B)s over a two-year period.
Can you advise us as to whether the government is considering renewing its long-term commitment to safe drinking water and waste water for the first nations? And can you provide a rationalization, given the need, given the number of boil-water advisories, and given the number of first nation communities at risk? What is the timeline over which we can anticipate that each of those communities will come into the 21st century and have access to safe drinking water?