Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know that my honourable colleague has expressed concern about the business plans and the fairness and equity of them on a number of occasions in this House and, if I may say, for the public record, a legitimate concern. I believe we are trying to address fairness and equity
as well as effectiveness and efficiency and I hope that we demonstrated that in the last twelve months, however, difficult it has been, I wanted to remind everybody that we had a plan in place to balance the budget and I agree with my honourable colleague's statement the other day, that we need to get beyond balancing the budget and get on to the more productive aspects of governing.
I believe that the balanced budget deficit elimination strategy is on target. That we will meet the requirements of the Deficit Elimination Act and, at the same time, be able to move forward in looking at productive ways in which to service the people we represent. So, in short, Mr. Speaker, I hope that the new business plans for 97/98 will be able to demonstrate to my colleague that there is an effective and fairness to it and I am confident that if it is not, that my colleague, as well as others, will be able to draw that to our attention and any changes and recommendations they wish to make in this consensus committee style government that we are currently working with. Thank you.