Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to speak to this motion today. I hear the concerns of my colleagues, especially my colleagues from the smaller communities. They are hearing the brunt of the issues that are out there facing their constituents. This whole transfer of responsibility for social housing from the Housing Corporation over to ECE two years ago when it all started was, and continues to be for me, one of the strangest and most bizarre things that I have seen here in this House as a Member of this Legislative Assembly. I will tell you a little story, if I could, in speaking to this motion.

Thirty million dollars was taken from the Housing Corporation over to ECE to roll out the social housing policy and look after it. Thirteen positions were needed at ECE to carry out the work that was being done by the Housing Corporation and the staff in the regions. There was no rhyme nor reason as to why the positions couldn't come over with the money. We left the positions in. I am still left baffled as to what exactly the people who were doing the social policy work in the Housing Corporation are now doing now that the money is over at ECE. Last year we took I believe it was in the neighbourhood of half a million dollars out of a supp to try to send a message to the government that it didn't quite add up for us. It didn't add up for me, and it didn't add up for a number of my colleagues over here, that the government wanted to hire 13 people in ECE to deliver the same thing that the Housing Corporation was delivering. We were successful in taking that money out of the supp. We turn around, and the next thing you know, $1.3 million is just grabbed from the Housing Corporation budget to fund the new positions. It is completely bizarre. Again, there was no rhyme, there was no reason as to why and how this all took place.

Fundamentally, I agree with some of my colleagues here that a centralized service delivery model is possibly the best way to go about things, but there are some serious concerns on implementation of this. If the problems out there are existing to the extent where Members are hearing concerns from their constituents and things aren't getting done and things are just a complete mess, I think that is, for me, why I am going to support the motion. I mentioned it the other day, too, when Ministers travel to various FPT meetings across the country, oftentimes they learn ideas or they see things that provinces are doing and these super service centres are all the rage now in southern Canada. We come back here and we try to think, hey, maybe we can do this here too. But it doesn't always work here. We have only 42,000 people and we have scarce resources. Yet, what happened? What took place there? I still cannot figure it out exactly what transpired there with the 13 positions at ECE and the people that were at the Housing Corporation. Mr. Speaker, I have to chuckle because that, to me, was just completely absurd. I have yet to hear an explanation exactly how that all happened, Mr. Speaker.

I will support the motion in support of my colleagues in the regions who have heard the concerns and are hearing the concerns. Even in my riding, Mr. Speaker, I have heard concerns as well. So I will support the motion. I think some of the responsibility here, and let's be clear with this, lies with us, with the Regular Members, with the Social Programs committee. I am not on that committee, but let's try to work through some of this stuff. There has to be an easier and a better way to do things. Right now, it seems like a complete mess, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi.