Thank you. In short, what I am trying to say, Mr. Speaker, is that there are Members and communities which are not fairly represented by this process because they have no input into the budgets before they are discussed in the Assembly. The process we are using at this time is duplicated, especially for those Members who are Members of the Standing Committee on Finance, as they are able to raise their concerns to the Ministers twice.
If I may, Mr. Speaker, one suggestion would be to bypass the standing committee stage as it would make the process fair by allowing all Members to participate in the formation of the budget. It would also reduce costs to this government as all Members would then have to meet only once to form the budget recommendations.
One of the concerns raised by some of the Members was that there is no public process at the standing committee stage. This suggested process then brings the proposed budget of this government directly to the Legislative Assembly and brings the whole budget process to the public as it happens. Another suggestion which would make it fairer for all Members and the communities that they represent would be to bring in all the ordinary Members to the standing committee meetings. I urge this Legislative Assembly to reconsider the present process and review it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.