Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I believe the fact that needs to be taken into consideration is that women's organizations are already severely under-funded for the mandate that they carry and the work that they are expected to do. The Status of Women Council in particular is required by territorial legislation to provide research and public information to women in community organizations on all issues pertaining to women. And although the Premier has suggested that they do receive and has provided the amounts of in-kind support that they receive in addition to their actual grants, the fact is that two years ago they received a cutback of $10 thousand and they were obligated to expend an additional $11 thousand to start covering all their own faxing and photocopying services and charges.

Mr. Chairman, those are the remarks I would like to make. I would like to underline the fact that these women do a tremendous amount of work, very important work and are already severely under-funded, before you take the 10 percent reduction into consideration. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.