Mr. Speaker, I’d like to recognize Mr. Bromley’s motion as very important, and I appreciate the spirit and intent of it.

Mr. Speaker, as the father of two young children I certainly understand and in no way dispute the nutritional value of milk. I understand that clearly, and it makes perfect sense to me. I also understand the impacts of what happens when you don’t have milk.

It’s difficult to say this, but I cannot support this motion at this time the way it’s designed. This program, in my view, is what the Food Mail Program, in principle, should be doing but isn’t doing. I believe that the problem really is focused on how the Food Mail Program is delivered. I think in a little bit of time the Food Mail Program, if delivered properly, would solve this exact problem.

Mr. Speaker, at the end of the day the feds are paying $50 million into the Food Mail Program, and I’m not sure we’re getting the value we need out of it. We now have to find a way to subsidize milk to lower that cost when we already have a program

that does it. I don’t feel the territorial government is in a position to subsidize the federal government.

I completely understand why the motion has come forward. I like the intent; I like the spirit — if it could just be that simple. I really wish it could, but it isn’t. Where is the money going to come from? We already know that the territorial government has difficulty with its finances now, and we’re making tough choices every day. But are we going to a $500,000 program run by a $1 million administration? I’m not necessarily sure.

Is it a question of people making good choices for their families? Well, I’ve always believed that families will make good choices by themselves on what they feel is appropriate for the family. If you are in a small community, I understand that it’s easier to reach for a $2 can of pop versus a $10 jug of milk. But you know what? When you do the math, the milk still is cheaper. I think it comes down to nutritional choices that people are making.

Mr. Speaker, if we want to have impact on the youth, my feeling is: why aren’t we subsidizing things like baby food? Why are we leaving seniors off the table? Seniors would benefit from milk too. I’ve heard constantly that osteoporosis is a problem in the seniors’ community; we should be including them in this program. There are a lot of concerns right now.

There’s another way. If we want to benefit parents to make responsible choices, why don’t we give them all another $100 per child in child care? That would free up money in their pockets to make good choices.

Mr. Speaker, the intent is really good. There are lots of ways to achieve the same thing, but I’m not necessarily sure how this would be. If it’s to go to low income folks or income support folks, I am concerned and curious if this money would be clawed back. In other words, we’ve just found a new way to give more money to the Northern Stores or the co-ops without necessarily doing much. I think the end user would be set back.

If the goal is to help people, I think we need to find ways to help people directly. Let’s put it onto income support payments and increase the base for people who have children. If you have children, you get an extra $100 per child per month. That way they can help make good choices directly. We could do that in one broad brush stroke without creating a new program. That could be done today if we really wanted to. It’s this House that sets those dollar values, so we could do that.

Mr. Speaker, at the end of the day, I want to thank Mr. Bromley. He also came to me to talk to me about my reservations. I want to thank him for his efforts to go through his perspective on this motion. I agree with the intent, but I have to stand by my

concerns and convictions on this one, which are that the fundamental problem is the Food Mail Program. That is the delivery mechanism that we could get the best value for all Northerners on, and that’s exactly where the problem is. Once an audit goes through, I think that will solve a lot of our problems and go in the right direction.

If we want to change the subsidy in another vehicle to help support people with their milk, that’s okay. I’m willing to listen, and I’m certainly willing to stand up and support an income support adjustment to help the people in the lowest income bracket any day of the week, Mr. Speaker.

With that, I’ll be voting against the motion. I don’t do so in a happy way. I just think this isn’t exactly how it should be addressed.