Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I'm going to support my colleague's Mr. Braden's motion that's before us today for a number of reasons. First of all, being the fact that I am 100 percent convinced that this happened for all the wrong reasons and none of the right reasons. When you're conducting government business, I'd like to see things conducted in an open, honest and transparent fashion. This, to me, has been outside the normal course of doing business. I don't understand why it couldn't go through the proper channels, like I mentioned. I won't rehash all of this, but it shows up in a budget in
2004-05, disappears for an entire fiscal year, is not in the business plan last year, and all of a sudden comes back.
The Minister of Health and Social Services has talked about the process taking 18 months. Why don't we send it back to the Social Programs committee and let it run its course? Put it through a business planning process or business planning cycle and see what happens. What have we got to lose by doing things the right way and the proper way they should be done? This was not done the right way.
I know I could argue for quite some time on whether or not any of these directives were broken or skirted or whatever you want to call it. In my mind, they were. I know the Minister says they weren't. I know Mr. Voytilla says they weren't. But we're arguing over what the intention of these directives are and, in my mind, coming back here and asking us for approval is just...All the information, Mr. Chairman, that we got was last night, late last night. So now we're coming back here today expected to make a decision on a supplementary that includes money for Dene K'onia and how long have we had what little information we've had, Mr. Chairman? Less than 24 hours and we're expected to make a decision, Mr. Chairman.
It should just run its course through the normal process. Just because it's Yellowknife and we're going to lose some jobs, we're going to lose a vital program to the community here in Yellowknife. It seems me just because it's Yellowknife, well, you know, some of the Members and even our own government is saying well, we'll put it in Hay River. It's just Yellowknife, they can live with it. To me that's not good enough, Mr. Chairman. We have people out here and we have a program that we have to support. It's one of the few programs that we have that actually works and helps young people. I don't understand why a decision like this couldn't follow the normal course of due process. That's all I ask for.
I agree with my colleague from Great Slave that I would be supportive of programs moving. Show us the information. Consult with us. Show us how it makes sense. Work with us. That's all we ask, Mr. Chairman. In this case we didn't get that consultation. That's the reason why I'm supporting this motion for the deletion of the $505,000. Let it run its due course. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
---Applause