Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I do not want to steer you astray. I do not believe that I have made a reply to the opening address, and I am getting a no, so I think I am okay.

I will try not to stray all over the place, Mr. Speaker. I will not take too much of the House's time, but I have been concerned, and Mr. Nitah has raised this issue, so I felt that I should weigh in on it, but I have certainly been concerned about the fact that I have not seen a willingness on the part of this government to be forthright about our financial situation, Mr. Speaker, in my opinion.

I think that this is a perfect example, when people point to our consensus system and talk about its failing and its problems, I do not necessarily think that it is in the system, Mr. Speaker. I think more to the point, it is in the way that we are running our system.

Now, we have heard from the Minister of Finance that he is prepared to come to the Ordinary Members committee and talk about our, a couple of weeks ago, $60 million deficit, now $100 million deficit, and we have talked about this in the House, so I believe I am safe in speaking to those numbers now, and talk to Members and get their support for certain mitigation measures.

Mr. Speaker, I think what is very clear in my opinion is that this is consensus when it is convenient. I say that because we have had numerous occasions in the past year where FMB, the seven of them, have sat around a little table and decided to vote yes to spend an additional $8 million, $20 million...I do not know how many million dollars on the correction facility, just as an example, and certainly Regular Members were not consulted.

I can tell you, had this side of the House been consulted, we would have said build the building with the money we have given you, but we were never asked, Mr. Speaker. That is just a specific example. So we have overspending problems that have simply arisen because FMB has decided to wield their power without coming to the other Members of this House and truly adhering to our consensus style and consensus system.

Mr. Speaker, almost two weeks I think we have been in session and no discussion from the Finance Minister about this deficit. We all know about it because we have been briefed continually, Mr. Speaker, but it has been very frustrating to have our constituents talk to us about the rosy future, the outlook that we have that we seem to put a nice brave face on when we are talking about our future.

Mr. Speaker, the Members on this side of the House know that is not reality. There are some good prospects, but you know, Mr. Speaker, we are trying to bail the ship with no buckets. We are sitting here with our hands scooping water madly as fast as we can and trying to put on a brave face. I have no idea why this government and this Finance Minister will not talk about it, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, we have gotten some of this information out, but it has taken us asking pointed questions. Mr. Dent here today, myself last week and again today, and that is certainly, Mr. Speaker, I do not think is transparent and forthright.

Mr. Speaker, I do not know why this is the case. It almost seems to me as if the government had sat down and decided that it is like we are on safari, and someone has suggested them to keep all their fingers and toes inside the vehicle so that the public and the Members on this side of the House do not get even more irate at the conduct that has been going on, and start to bite them off. Mr. Speaker, it is a bunker mentality. They dug in and now they are prepared to just wait until the storm is over, wait until session is out and then carry on and hope that they can weather that storm, Mr. Speaker.

Ms. Lee spoke of our government spending like drunken sailors, Mr. Speaker, and I believe that is when she was of the impression that we had a $60 million deficit. Mr. Speaker, if we were a little tipsy at $60 million, certainly we are bombed now, and this Minister has yet to stand up and talk to the public about the severity of this issue. I recognize that he is prepared to come before AOC and get us to all buy in and support all of the tough decisions that need to be made, but all I can say for consensus government is that when it was time to break out the chequebook and start spending like mad, nobody asked the Members on this side of the House. That, Mr. Speaker, speaks to the true failing of consensus government. It is not in the system, it is in how the actors are playing. Thank you.

-- Applause