Thank you, Madam Chair. I just have some brief comments. I wanted to follow up on the response of the Minister to my and other general comments yesterday. Specifically, the Minister estimated the impact of the recommendations from committees, the financial impact of our recommendations at about $4.1 million and acted as if that was impossible to deal with. I did a quick calculation dividing $4.1 million by $1.5 billion and multiplying by 100 to get the percentage of what we’re talking about here, and it turns out that the 11 Members on this side of the House were recommending 0.25 percent of the budget be spent in the way that our constituents would like to see it spent. That’s 0.25 percent. That is one-quarter of 1 percent of the budget. It may be tough. All decisions are tough when we decide how to spend dollars.
I also quickly looked at what the increase in revenues are this year and I found that the Minister mentioned our revenues are increased by $132 million this year. I want to say right off that I think he has underestimated what we are asking for. My calculation, when all is said and done, he’s chosen one committee to focus his estimate on. When we look at our various committees, I think our estimate might be four times that; essentially 1 percent of this budget.
Now, we are in a consensus government supposedly here. We do go through an extraordinary amount of work and I think our public appreciates fully the opportunity provided by this process of business plan reviews. I can’t imagine what we spend in that process but I’m sure it’s significant.
There are 11 Members in the question and answer period with each and every Minister for each and every department carefully going over everything that we’re presented with and considerable debate, both during and afterwards, as we summarize those and try and boil our biggest concerns down to our greatest points to be made at minimum cost. We’ve done that and let’s say that we came up with $15 million or $16 million worth of recommendations. Again, 1 percent of the budget. In a consensus government, again, I don’t see that as out of line. I
don’t see it as being out of line to expect that a Cabinet, a Premier and Cabinet will be listening to those voices and finding ways to respond in a productive and cooperative way, reflecting that consensus government approach.
I do recognize these are tough decisions to be made, but they obviously are being made, and a number gave examples where millions and millions of dollars, tens of millions of dollars are being spent in ways and were somehow found in this budget for things that this Cabinet is interested in pursuing.
I just wanted to present that perspective. It’s just a comment, and I appreciate that opportunity. Mahsi.