Hon. Leo Housakos: Thank you, Senator Black, for your question and also for having the courtesy of providing it to me in advance.

I’m happy to tell you that on April 27 of this year the committee heard testimony from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, which has over 2,000 members, representatives from right across the country.

As part of its testimony, FCM discussed its work with rural communities, noting that it provides training at regional levels so that smaller municipalities can learn how to use the federal government’s climate data in their infrastructure planning.

The committee also plans on inviting individual municipalities, including rural ones, to testify at the committee on this important study.

The FCM will be recommending some municipalities that have shown leadership on this issue to testify at committee on this study. I also want to underline that as per the tradition of the Senate, just because senators don’t serve on the committee on a regular basis, every senator can follow and participate.

Also, I encourage yourself and all members of this chamber that have recommendations in terms of witnesses on this important study to make them to our steering committee, as those would be more than embraced. Our clerk expects to have the input from the FCM and, in order to plan going forward, our witnesses. We look forward, as usual, to making sure that our study is all-encompassing and making sure that all regions of the country are well represented.

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