Hon. Dominic LeBlanc, P.C., M.P., Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Infrastructure and Communities: Your Honour, through you to Senator Patterson, thank you for that interesting question. It’s not a policy area on which I have very precise knowledge. I will ask my colleague Jean-Yves Duclos as well as Anita Anand, the defence minister. I didn’t understand — and I come from New Brunswick where, you can imagine, with a military base as important as Gagetown — what that would represent to the provincial health system in Fredericton, where the senator sitting behind you resides. I know these have been sources of frustration between the Armed Forces’ health services and provinces and territories. I had a sense of the concern you identified.

The good news, senator, is that the agreements that we have reached with the provinces and territories are agreements in principle. The binding bilateral detailed agreements are still being negotiated. The provinces wanted to sign agreements in principle. It allowed them to book the federal money in their budgets. They responded quickly to what the Prime Minister offered, and Jean-Yves Duclos and I did a quick trip around the country to 13 provincial and territorial capitals. We were very happy with the agreements in principle, but the detailed agreements are still to be negotiated.

I’ll take that question back and make sure that Jean-Yves Duclos, who is leading those detailed bilateral negotiations, gets the information from the Canadian Armed Forces. It is an interesting subject and one I didn’t know a lot about, but I’ll ensure we do the appropriate follow-up. Thank you for the question.

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