Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, this has been a very good discussion. I think the situation, you heard the surprise when the Minister mentioned the milk program and so on, or the breakfast program and so on, the things that were not mentioned in the detail we had received to date. The sticking point for the committee is obviously the steering committee. We do not need government by committee, and I am hoping that that will be nixed somehow, an NWT-wide Nutritious Foods Steering Committee. We envision people flying around and wasting dollars, which should be put directly into the sorts of programs that have been mentioned: Food First and breakfast programs in schools.

I also want to mention that this is certainly a new program, as the Minister of Health and Social Services… In fact, the idea was about a week old when we first saw it, which reflects the sort of thinking, the depth of thinking that’s gone into this. It’s on the fly, anything other than getting in line more directly and non-bureaucratically with what the committee had in mind seems to be something this government is willing to take here.

The Minister of Health and Social Services again mentioned milk allergies. Oh my gosh, how many times do we have to address that? We’ve never denied that that is an issue and there are other milk substitutes out there that will deal with that. An important aspect that is missed in the programs I have been hearing about is the early childhood side of the equation. That was always a very important part. In fact, initially we had conceived of this as dealing with the first six years of life, very much a preschool thing, at least in emphasis.

So, Mr. Chair, I am quite willing to have this motion die here or not be passed, but I would ask committee for their support in withholding final approval of this department’s budget until such time as the Minister provides much more detail on how these dollars will be spent and convinces us that it’s not going to disappear in bureaucracy, it will actually get translated into nutritious food delivered to children. That’s all I have. Thank you.