Thank you. Mr. Chairman, I wasn't going to speak on this, but what is contradictory, I think, in the remarks by the chairman of the Standing Committee on Finance is that that has been one of the issues, as a government, we have been trying to struggle with -- the assessment of services and dollars available so that we could try to respond positively to the recommendations of the Standing Committee on Finance.
In terms of trying to assess the monies that are in the Department of Health and Social Services and Education for special needs and youth services, that has been a very difficult thing until we had a policy and the direction of government because what we're finding is that the recommendation, so far, even from the boards, has been to increase the dollars. I think your recommendation of being more frugal and more responsible in spending dollars is the better approach to take. That, in many respects, has not been done to date. It has really only been within this last year that advice has been given through the Special Committee on Health and Social Services to bring some sense to what it is we've been trying to do.
The other thing is even in terms of pilot projects, the issues are still who is actually responsible and who works those things out. We've been criticized for trying to come forward with a number of those assessments. On the one hand, we're advised to go in a direction and we're trying to say we want to be responsible to you and organize the expenditures and at the same time, we're criticized because we're not spending money.
I just wanted to highlight that because the comments you made are really good comments in the last couple of moments. It has not been the kind of direction that it seems we're getting, at least not that I'm getting.