Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, since November of last year, discussions have been made with regard to the mid-term review and some of the performances of the Ministers. In the discussions in the Members' statements, one of the things that came out was there was unanimous agreement that the Honourable Rebecca Mike's performance, both leading up to the review and during the review, was unacceptable resulting in a grade of "f."

There are three major areas of concern with this Minister. The Minister is not open when questioned by Members. The purpose of question period is to raise areas of concern with the Minister, not personally attack her. However, the Minister takes all questions as an attack and deals with them in a hostile and defensive manner. The Minister has also failed to take full responsibility for her department, instead constantly referring to the problems left by previous Ministers. These were statements made, Madam Speaker, during the mid-term review. Members were also appalled when Ms. Mike admitted she disregarded the interim report of the Special Committee on Health and Social Services. Those reports were issued to allow the government to begin working on this important area. It is inexcusable that the Minister has essentially ignored these reports. The third one was with regard to Social Services. It is incumbent upon her to push social issues in Cabinet. Ms. Mike has shown no leadership in this area. As a result, social issues do not appear to be a Cabinet priority.

Madam Speaker, these are some of the comments that were made at that time. During the last several weeks, this has been discussed by ordinary Members, to a point where we weren't going to get anywhere with the way things were going in that area. All ordinary Members know that we have discussed this in length and we seem to be at a stalemate on what to do. Naturally, Mr. Ningark, as a representative on OMC, did make a statement to that regard. He made a statement to the effect that although they are not happy with the Minister, it was up to the Premier to do this.

I believe on December 4, there was a motion passed in this House to rename the Government Leader "Premier," which gives her the further powers on this responsibility. If my understanding is correct, the Premier in any other province, or the Prime Minister for that matter, deals with his Cabinet as he sees fit. This was passed unanimously by the Members of this House. Unfortunately, the Government Leader chose not to address the issue at that time.

Madam Speaker, during the next few months, there are going to be a lot of issues that are coming up that the Minister has to deal with. One of them is social reform. In that regard, we have a situation where social assistance has to be addressed, family allowance has to be addressed, social security has to be addressed, shelters for women have to be addressed, daycare has to be addressed, disabled persons have to be addressed, blind people have to be addressed, families of abused environments have to be addressed, the family law review committee has to be addressed and, also, the senior citizens' homes all have to be addressed. Naturally, the Greenway group home has to be addressed as well.

Those issues are not going to go away because the Minister is responsible. It concerns me that if we don't address those situations and the Minister who is responsible for that area, we might be put into a situation where it is unfair to the Minister, herself, whether she can carry out that big a responsibility.

I have a concern, Madam Speaker. In my constituency, we don't have that big of a social assistance issue. Unemployment is quite low, but I have a lot of senior citizens, a lot of children and a lot of women in my constituency who need to have their concerns addressed. I'm afraid that even this kind of load, which isn't to this point that great a work-load, hasn't been responded to in the appropriate way.

Madam Speaker, before I close, I made a statement earlier and I want to comment on it. My statement was not with regard to the Minister but with regard to the responsibilities carried out by other Ministers. We give certain Minister's lighter loads and that is one of my biggest concerns. I feel it is unfair for some Ministers to be carrying more than their share of the responsibilities. I don't think that's right. Any Minister who thinks it is should resign. I don't think it's fair for certain Ministers to be carrying out everything, while others are not. That was the other concern I wanted to talk about.

I will say this, to all the Members here -- or at least the Members who wish to address this -- that this issue has gone on long enough. The media has picked up on it. The Premier has tried to address it but I wasn't satisfied with the responses I was getting and I walked out of the meeting. We have to stand up in this House and answer to the public. I'm doing this in fairness to my constituency, but also in fairness to the honourable Minister of Social Services. Perhaps it is time we resolve the issue instead of waiting and having her worried all summer long and not able to concentrate on her job.

I would hope that, once we resolve this, we can let the issue rest. I don't intend to get up again in this House and make statements with Members who don't back up what they say. I certainly don't want to be put into a situation where I'm the fall guy for the rest of the Members. I would like to say to the Member that I think, in all fairness, we have to deal with the issue now. It's not going to wait. I can make a prediction right now, Madam Speaker, and that is, from henceforth to the end of our mandate, I don't think there will be another motion of this kind coming up. Thank you.