Hon. Dominic LeBlanc, P.C., M.P., Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Infrastructure and Communities: Thank you for your question. You’re quite right. Bilateral relations between Canada and the various provinces and territories, at certain times and in certain files, can be a vehicle for advancing shared priorities.

I’m fortunate to have very friendly personal relationships with several provincial and territorial premiers including, for example, Ontario’s Premier Ford and Saskatchewan’s Premier Moe. I would say that we’ve become friends as a result of my work with them. This doesn’t mean that these relationships are always easy.

The idea of creating a multilateral forum for the issues you identified so clearly, and that don’t affect just one province in particular, is very interesting. We already hold federal‑provincial-territorial meetings with ministers of infrastructure, the environment, transport, and internal trade, a position I once held. These are opportunities for the federal government and its partners in the federation to meet.

The idea of having a round table with other partners, and not just those representing different levels of government, is very interesting. This forum could include the private sector and NGOs, for example, to fight climate change. I’ll be very pleased to speak to my colleague, Minister Guilbeault, and with other colleagues who have exactly this type of relationship, which is more multilateral than just unidirectional or bidirectional, with the provinces. Thank you for the question.

[English]

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.

[Translation]