Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I thank the witnesses for joining us today.
You are probably familiar with the municipality of Sainte-Marthe-sur‑le‑Lac, which experienced extremely significant flooding in 2019: 600 homes were flooded. That was a major incident in my constituency.
At the time of the climate change adaptation of infrastructure projects, the government committed to cover 40% of the $51‑million cost of rebuilding and expanding the dike under the federal program. I have seen the documentation. So it was 40% of $51 million, or $20.4 million, for the City of Sainte-Marthe-sur‑le‑Lac. However, for purely administrative reasons, which are not reasons of non-compliance, the department flip-flopped and decided to pay only half of the amount. So the City of Sainte-Marthe-sur‑le‑Lac was deprived of more than $10 million, which is huge for a municipality of its size. Consequently, the Quebec government had to give $10.2 million of public money, from Quebec taxpayers, to the municipality to enable it to adapt to climate change.
Is the department considering how this money will be returned to Quebec taxpayers?