Mr. Chairman, I guess the reason I asked is because I am concerned about this recommendation. I think we will probably be one of the only jurisdictions in Canada that would look at implementing some type of thing like this, and I am concerned, when trying to address social programs in a universal manner, that you start also addressing them in a means-testing approach that at times takes away from the intent of the purpose of the social program, so I would like to suggest, and I would like to point out, that they certainly look at this with caution and that we do not start setting precedents to delivering social programs on a means-testing basis.

The other comment that I did want to make, Mr. Chairman, is in respect to the employment development and income support co-ordination. It states that consideration be given to establishing a department of education and employment with a mandate for delivering all of the programs related to employment development and income support, including social assistance. I have to state that I certainly do not agree with that at all. I find that you may be using a lot of your social assistance funding for development of employment programs, and that was not the intent of social assistance to begin with. The intent of social assistance, in my mind, was the fact that the federal government basically stated that people in need can be provided with social assistance to cover some of their basic needs that they need to live and cope with society. If you start looking at tinkering with social assistance and placing it into employment development, and looking at income support, you are doing away with the initial intention of social assistance, and I think you will be asking for a horrendous increase in costs. I think that is totally unfair to a recipient who basically needs social assistance to cover the basics, with no intention of employment development in their career path. There are many people who could be illiterate or that fall into this category, so I do want to stress that I do not agree with the idea of social assistance being placed in with the Department of Education, because social assistance was not meant to be in the Department of Education. It is meant to be in the Department of Social Services, to provide for a fundamental need to residents, and I strongly recommend against that. Those are basically my comments that I do have in respect to page 18, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.