Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to begin the discussions on the Health and Social Services' budget by highlighting some of the points that were raised in the Standing Committee on Social Programs report, Madam Chair. The first issue that I want to highlight again is the possibility of multi-year funding to the NGOs. I have to tell you that I was quite disappointed that we couldn't be more enthusiastically supporting government's action in this regard so far, because I was under the impression definitely that the last time around, last fall or perhaps even in the summer session, that I had thought we made some progress in moving the government forward to be more receptive to this idea, and I don't think we've gone as far as we should be able to.

I think all the Members here understand the work that so many NGOs do in our communities. I can name tons in our city who have been around for many, many years. They provide services in all sorts of areas, whether it's about supporting women or supporting people with addiction issues. The list goes on and on. It's the kind of service the government does not want to take on. These are groups that have been around for a long time. They have a proven record and if they were an individual, no one would have any problem giving a great reference to them. I just do not understand why we can't see the government starting to get into some of these contracts. Give them three-year multi-year funding.

At the same time, I really want the government to look at the forced growth issue. Every year, the government budget goes up. It's hard for the government budget to stay the same. Just the forced growth items come and it's almost an automatic passage. When the government departments come to our committees and they tell you there are 100 positions in our government and we have an automatic increase of four to five percent, or three to four percent, whatever that might be. It's usually a very huge amount because of collective bargaining or just natural inflation costs. We just don't even have an argument about that. I think that same has to apply to school boards, NGO funding, because these are all the places that provide essential services and I am not saying the budget should go up by three or four percent every year. I am just saying what's fair for the public programs that we provide in government, it's a fair game for the NGOs, too. They have to put up with the same cost of living indexes. They have to compete to hire qualified people to provide the services that they do. Often they usually hire staff at a lower level of salary than what would normally be called for for the level of qualifications that people have. They aren't usually able to provide the benefit package that governments can. So already they are having to hire people and get resources in much more adverse circumstances than the government can.

So unless the government is looking at the future where they may have to take on some of these programs, I think it is in the interest of the government to look at those NGOs that are doing well, that have a proven track record, to build in a forced growth element and to consider seriously multi-year funding.

I would like to ask the Minister if he would take the lead. I think that question has been asked to the Minister of Finance or the Premier and the Minister of Health and Social Services in the past. I believe various commitments were made to look into it. It's just that no one has taken the next step of actually doing something about it. I would like to know if the Minister of Health and Social Services would take the leadership on that. Thank you, Madam Chair.