Thank you, Madam Chairperson. On the two issues the Members has brought up, first on the monitoring evaluation of the board. The two facets, of course, are the board trustee development Mr. Ramsden spoke of earlier, having an individual monitor the appointment processes, what individuals have or have not undertaken, board trustee development. By the same token, we had mentioned yesterday about the monitoring evaluation unit. Two individuals specifically, geared toward dealing with the boards on a staff level to provide operational reviews and provide assistance if required, drawing upon the expertise of other individuals within the management of the Department of Health and Social Services.
For the issue of cuts and amalgamation, we know that when we undertook the amalgamation of Health and Social Services, there were some overlap and duplication in the administrative components. Both health boards and the Department of Social Services, at that time, had administration officers, regional superintendents, finance officers, clerks and et cetera. We understood that when they did do the amalgamation there were individuals impacted by that who either took the layoff packages or went to other departments in finding employment. The savings that were obtained from that, the boards put back into the programs staff primarily. In my area, they hired some staff development officers to support the social workers. Those are some of the reinvestments that came about as a result of some of those savings that were put forward as a result of amalgamation, Madam Chairperson.