Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My clock is off a little bit, so if I run over...I don't think I am going to have long comments to make, I just want to lend a couple of comments. I guess we held the completion of this department's budget because various Members had questions or extra information they needed to get with regard to the budget. I do believe that we have been working through this process. I didn't have specific issues there that I needed to get information on. Obviously, I have been asking questions to the government and Minister of Finance, in particular, about the budget address with regard to the workforce conversion project.
Mr. Chairman, I just want to state, though, I was surprised to hear earlier today when we had other meetings on that issue, the Minister suggested that somehow I was not appreciative or grateful about the information that I am getting from the officials of the corporation, and I think that's misstating the situation a bit. I think it is our job here to ask questions and to keep the government accountable. In fact, I believe I'm on the right path of asking these questions and making sure what due diligence that I feel are not being done, I somehow try to do my best to get the government to do that. But in asking those questions, it's never a question about whether I question the work, or work ethics, or competence of the staff. I believe that my work here is...and my questions are really always geared toward the Ministers and not to the staff, and it's up to the Ministers. I question the information that the Minister or the decisions that Ministers make, not to the staff. In fact, I think I made statements here, in one of my statements, stating that my criticism of any department on any issue is at the political level, not at the administrative or bureaucratic level. I think it's really important to keep that straight, because sometimes that's hard to tell. I could appreciate that when the discussions and debates here get heated and I could see that some people might feel that that's somehow reflecting on what they might be producing or not producing. So I just want to keep that straight. If there were any misunderstandings, I want to offer an explanation and clarification.
I do have one question in line with what Mr. Braden has been asking about the marketing housing initiative. The latest information we have on that new housing concept is that the government is hoping that 50 percent of the 1,400 homes would be taken up by the private sector. I guess one of the past performances that we could look at to gauge as to what would happen in the future is that there's no question that the Housing Corporation has had difficulty filling a majority of the market housing initiative properties. So if the Minister wants to present to us that he now wants to forecast that 50 percent of the 1,400 homes, which makes that 700 homes by the private sector; I'd like to know what the Minister is planning on doing differently or better to make sure that those lots are available. I would think that they have to do some kind of a market analysis, because we know from the market housing initiative...In fact, I think I was there when the official said that we heard that the teachers needed these
homes, and nurses needed these homes, and we had lots of need; there were lots of people who needed these homes. But when we got them there, there were lots of issues about people not wanting them. So I believe in learning from past experiences, so I'd like to know what best light the Minister can present to us as to what sort of steps the Minister and the corporation will take to make sure that doesn't happen again. Thank you.