Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Minister, I will ask you for a written response to the following question.
On page 2-27 of Supplementary Estimates (A) 2022-2023, there’s a request for $18,798,000 to support the investigation under the Emergencies Act. It’s under the Privy Council Office heading. There’s a request for over $7 million to support emergency preparedness management and enhance departmental capabilities.
Personally, I think that $19 million to support the inquiry is a lot of money. It doesn’t include the inquiry’s costs.
Here’s my first question: what actions would this funding support?
Secondly, there’s a request for $7 million to support emergency preparedness management and improve departmental capacity. We are not even talking about preparedness itself, or even about emergency management and response, but about actions taken to ensure that it's well managed, and even made possible. We’re talking about $7 million, even though we do not even have the start of an initial emergency response. I think that’s a lot of money.
What does this support include? Why does it cost $7 million?
When we talk about improving departmental capacity, what capacity are we talking about? Which department is it? How much of the $7 million is going towards improving departmental capacity? What is it about departmental capacity that needs improvement? How much money can improve that capacity?
I'm wondering about amounts that don’t seem to lead to any kind of action.
Thank you.