Thank you, Madam Chair. I’m listening closely and I believe we are wanting to get to the same place, the Member and I. I think we have slightly different opinions on how to get there.

This department and the government are focusing on supporting the demand, helping to create demand. We are becoming purchasers of pellet boilers and other biomass product on a regular basis.

The Department of Public Works and Services is an active member participating on the development of a Biomass Strategy. We are focusing much of our investment on actually utilizing the product and creating demand in the communities.

As far as being a supplier of pellets in those 16 communities, we need to make sure there’s demand there. We need to make sure that we have an opportunity to put in machine boilers and

whatnot. But this is a big territory, and there are 33 communities and every community has some demand, and we’re hitting those communities where we can get maximum benefit and build on those. Some of those smaller communities, there isn’t a demand right now. We need to work our way there and that’s going to happen. It’s going to take some time in some of the smaller communities.

We are focused on trying to reduce our costs and we will over time. But to put biomass storage in those 16 communities when there’s no demand doesn’t seem like the right investment now. Investing in actually utilizing and putting in pellet systems where there is a market and getting the immediate benefits on both greenhouse gas emissions and costs seems like a better investment of money up front. We will get, over time, to where the Member wants us to get. It will take time.