Thank you, Madam Chair. I think this is an extremely important topic here. The Minister says we are not able to discuss what will happen with these critical, important programs that this House has approved as priorities and put in place in this first quarter of the next fiscal year, and yet we are approving 33 percent or, actually, more of the budget, or well over a quarter of the budget, about a third for those three months.
In this budget that we are approving, it is simply a mirror of last year’s, and during last year’s budget those dollars were intended to serve the priorities and programs we had identified without knowing that work continues on and the next steps are taken with this $400-plus million worth we are proposing here based on last year’s budget. We are giving the government authorization, permission to spend the
dollars as they want. That is not right. Basically we have identified these priorities and we want to know that they are continuing to be served until such time as we establish new priorities. On that basis, I think it is quite correct to be asking and expecting commitment of ongoing work on these critically important programs, especially reviews and so on that are proposing new directions. I want to know that the government is committed to continuing these priorities until we have established new ones.
The dollars are there. They were spent in the past on these priorities and we are duplicating those dollars now, and to say that we can’t discuss how they are spent or anything like that and receive assurance they are continuing to be focused on those priorities and programs, that does not give me confidence at all. I want to know that that is the case. Before I go on with specifics, I welcome a response from the Minister on that. Thank you.