I understand that this has been a long, drawn out issue, by previous governments and this one. There is a genuine attempt here to try to reach an arrangement in a partnership with the UNW. Now, I am going to tell you, and I am going to make a speech about it on Tuesday or Wednesday. I do not think anybody in this House wants this governments to go out there laying off 300 and 400 employees. We have to ensure that the affordability issue is clear, front and centre when we get to the negotiating table because there is no breathing space in our fiscal framework. Yes, we have balanced the budget. Yes, we maybe have a $9 or $12 million surplus. That is one percent of our total budget. That could go in one or two days. So I think everybody has to be aware that while we are all relieved that the budget is balanced, we can get on to doing some other productive work, besides not being as compassionate as we would like.

We have to negotiate this arrangement under, what I call, the fiscal umbrella that we are all living in, to ensure that, one, it is affordable, and two, we do not have any more massive layoffs of employees because it will have to come from somewhere.

I am not prepared to borrow any money and do not have the legislative mandate to do so. Therefore, if there is not a negotiated arrangement reached; we, fundamentally, will have to address what other steps we are going to have to take. It will mean looking at programs and looking at employees.