Mr. Speaker, to me it’s not a matter of.... We all know what’s important to the residents we all represent here. We know that health care is important; we know education is important; we know we need to be spending some more money in certain areas. My point is that the government has taken it upon themselves to identify areas where they’re going to spend millions of dollars. In effect, they’re taking away my constituents’ voice at the table, and that of every other Regular Member who’s on this side of the House when we don’t have any input into where those millions of dollars are being reinvested. That, to me, is a fundamental flaw in the process.
I’d also ask the Premier: where were Regular Members when the decision was made to reduce positions by 135? Where were we in that discussion? We found out three weeks after the fact that that had happened. That’s inexcusable.