Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Most of my comments will come during the detailed consideration, but I do have a couple of comments that I would like to make about the Minister's opening comments and a question to ask about one section in the opening comments.
One thing that I would like to note that I am quite happy to see is the importance that is placed in the Minister's opening comments on the natural environment. I must say that I have had constituents mention to me that they were somewhat concerned that in our vision statement, Towards a Better Tomorrow, they did not see very much of an emphasis on environmental issues. I listened to the Premier's speech on January 17th and I listened to the Minister's budget speech on February 15th. In neither of those two documents did I hear much reflection of the importance of the natural environment, so I am pleased to see that the Minister has, in his opening comments this evening, put the natural environment high on the list of areas of importance.