Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to again speak today about respite care and the decision to cut the $250,000 required to fund the program.

Mr. Speaker, on Monday, after making a statement on respite care funding reductions, I had the opportunity to again question the Minister on how this decision was made, why this decision was made, where the money was going and ultimately who made the call to cut the funding. Judging by the response I received to my questions, the Minister seemed to have absolutely no clue in how to answer those questions about the cuts to respite care funding, except to say that health and social services is in a deficit situation.

Mr. Speaker, this is true. However, for the Minister to imply to me that this is the sole reason for the cut to respite care programming dollars is a solid indication that this Minister just does not seem to remember her solid support for respite care while a Regular Member, or her proposal to committee 18 months ago to fight deficits at our health authorities. What has happened since then, Mr. Speaker? Nothing, zero, not a thing to address the deficits that, I’ll remind the Minister, have been there since she became Minister in 2007.

Mr. Speaker, does the Minister not have a moral and ethical obligation to address the concerns like chronic underfunding, unfunded positions, medical travel deficits and the rising cost of equipment and supplies? These are not new issues. They need to be addressed, not used as a scapegoat to justify funding cuts to respite care programming. The bottom line is, is this is a clear dereliction of duty by this Minister. The problems have not been addressed, they’re not going to just go away, and in the case of the deficits at our health authorities, they’re getting much worse as the days go by. If it’s cuts to respite care today, Mr. Speaker, what is going to be coming tomorrow? Thank you.