Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just one quick question. I’m wondering where the tax from, or is it the fee from the plastic bags is reflected here or is that reflected elsewhere in the budget? Thank you.

Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That levy is not reflected in this. The money that would be generated would flow into the Waste Recovery Fund that ENR has and it would be accounted for through that fund. Thank you.

Okay. Page 5-10.

Moving on to page 5-12, activity summary, deputy minister’s office. Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a question. I’ve raised it in Member’s statements but I wanted to raise it here since it falls under the deputy minister’s office in terms of our review of the business plans. The Public/Private Partnerships Policy, we were advised in November that it was going to be ready around February of ’09, which was a little while ago. I wonder if the Minister can advise when that policy will be ready for standing committee review. Thank you.

Mr. Taggart.

That’s great. Thank you for that answer. That is all I have, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

Page 5-12, activity summary.

Page 5-13, activity summary, deputy minister’s office, operations expenditure summary, $42.266 million.

We are moving on to page 5-14, activity summary, deputy minister’s office, grants and contributions, contributions, $37.820 million.

Page 5-15, information item, activity positions, deputy minister’s office.

We are moving on to page 5-16, activity summary, fiscal policy. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I know in some of the tax policy discussions and revenue discussions the questions of carbon tax came up as something that the committee was interested in and needed a lot more exploration and education learning. I am wondering if some work has been done on that and/or is planned with this division and if that might be coming forward as well. Thank you.

Minister Miltenberger.

Mr. Chairman, we have started a process with the last roundtable on revenue suggestions and options to commit to that process. I have also indicated in the budget address and in my opening comments that the possible restructure of our tax system to look at making it more effective without necessarily raising taxes, specifically on the carbon tax piece. There has been some initial work done. We have also looked at the documents submitted by the Member for Weledeh. As well, we are waiting to see what is going to come out of the United States as they move forward with their environmental policy and if they are going to be looking at a carbon tax structure or not or what kind if they are going to move with that. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, I am wondering if there is a plan to share that or time frame for sharing that. How long will we sort of be waiting for U.S. policies to be developed? Thank you.

We are not waiting but it is going to…What America has decided is going to have an impact on what is going to happen in Canada, initially we were looking at intensity targets. Now they are looking at a cap and trade kind of much different approach. If they agree and they are going to move to some type of continental or North American system, then that will give us a much clearer framework to work within. At the same time we are looking at our own tax system. We have to look at the offsets, the impact on cost of living and, as we move forward by fall, as we look at where we are with our targets, where we are with our revenues and such, we will be able to, I think, be looking at all that type of work, especially as we move forward with the business planning process for 2010-11. Thank you.