Thank you, Chair.
I'd like to thank the guests for being here today.
Perhaps the federation people understand the sensitivity of the bill. I think—this is for my colleague—one of the changes that occurred in this bill from the previous bill was in trying to recognize the sensitivities that exist in some of the provincial jurisdictions with respect to what is seen to be the federal government's intrusion into their area. It certainly has different ramifications, depending where you are.
The other thing is that the federal government recognizes there may be shortcoming in some provinces, but it's not our responsibility to necessarily have some sort of heavy hand or to mandate that they all come to the same level. I think the intent of the bill was to try to weave that area.
This is to the federation. Mr. Owen talked about “mitigating circumstances”. Often we go back to Katrina. My understanding is that there may have been original federal plans to mitigate what might have been a future situation, but where the money perhaps didn't go to repair the levees. Had the levees held, Katrina would not have been the catastrophic scenario it was. This might point to the problem with the federal government's being involved at the municipal level without follow-up to as what's happening to the funds. I wonder whether you have any comments on that scenario.