Thank you, Madam Chair. I’d like to thank the Member for his kind words about the budget and the work that we’ve all put into developing this, both MLAs, Cabinet and, of course, the people in government.
I want to reassure the Member that he talked about not abandoning the communities and don’t take back the funding and withdraw funding. In this budget there are no program cuts. We’ve reinvested and are continuing to support all the
departments’ programs and services that we do provide.
As we talk about a climate of certainty economically, we, as well, agree and we want to, for many reasons, but it makes good sense. It provided comfort to the private sector and it lets people in the communities know, as well, that there is stability.
We have the work that we’ve talked about with the Minister of ITI in terms of the initiative that he has underway, plus all the work related to the traditional economy and the work we want to do as we engage with the Rural and Remote Communities committee.
The issue of devolution, and the best deal or not at this point, these negotiations have been going on for almost nine years and in light of the deficit reduction of the federal government now that’s underway, the significant cutbacks taking $4.5 billion a year out of government, the deal that we’ve negotiated, in my mind, will be looking even more positively as it did before as they’ve cut 20,000 and extract money from government. We have a commitment from them for a base amount that was negotiated before the significant restraint that is currently underway. My suggestion would be if, in fact, we were currently negotiating devolution, it would be a much tougher climate than it was a couple of years ago.
The issue of a community model and the need for an economic base is one of the whole focuses of the Economic Development Strategy that, once again, the government through ITI wants to lay out within the broad policy framework of the Land Use and Sustainability Framework.
The strategy on the well-being of people, anti-poverty, mental health, will be addressed and are committed to and will be discussed by the Minister of Health and Social Services. There are response letters that have gone back to committee in regard to their specific requests that have come out of their review of the business plans and their advice and recommendations back to government. Once again, I’d like to thank the Member for his very positive, supportive comments. Thank you.