While I acknowledge the concerns expressed by my colleague, Mr. Bernhardt, and I am sympathetic about it, I am not as much of a philosopher. I am more of a practitioner. My concern is regarding the process of who makes the decision regarding the phasing in of these responsibilities. To me, there is a contradiction going on in the sense of this report at the regional level. On the one hand, we are saying we need more involvement by MLAs. It says so right here in the report. On the other hand, this report clearly says we need to change the role of regional directors. God help us. They want to give the regional directors more responsibility and, believe it or not, have them report to cabinet.

That reinforces with me that too many decisions are going to be made at the centre, and not enough are going to be made where the problems occur. Surely, on the one hand we want MLAs to be more involved in the decision-making -- and it has been said on a number of occasions by the people in this House -- but on the other hand they say this option is strongly recommended. Are we not, in fact, going back to the way it was 20 years ago by saying the regional directors are going to be the instrument in the region and are going to report directly to cabinet? Where do we fit in?