Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, a policy is a general statement of intent, and direction, and so on from a government. It is not a commandment, it is not a law. It is statement of how we
intend to conduct business. Every policy we have in government has a statement that says that nothing in the policy shall be construed to limit the prerogative of Executive Council to make exceptions where the circumstances warrant. We have to look at the various interests and determine what the best way of doing this, does this warrant an exception. Mr. Speaker, in some cases we do that, but in other cases we most often choose not to. If we are making a lot of exceptions, we need to review the whole policy. Mr. Speaker, I wouldn't take this to Caucus. I don't think it is a matter we want to deal with in Caucus, but certainly it is an issue that we intend to fully communicate with AOC and let committee Members and Members of the Legislative Assembly, where we can, know in advance. But on the communication side, we will do everything we can to make sure that everyone knows why we are making the exception before we do it.
Mr. Speaker, in this case, we have pushed a budget very quickly, and there may be some things that we could have done better in communicating the most recent decision here. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.