It’s something that I’ve actually thought of at different times. I’ve had an opportunity to talk to professionals who were around in the day when the two departments were brought together or the many departments were brought together and services were shipped out to Education, Culture and Employment in other areas as well.

I’ve also had an opportunity to talk to a significant number of professionals in the system. At the end of the day, it’s my opinion what we want is an integrated system. We want social workers and social service providers able to work collaboratively

with our health providers. I don’t believe there’s going to be benefit in the long term for us to split this up and create new silos when what we really want to do is find ways to work together. The Member is not wrong. Things have taken too long to happen. We need to take some action. We need some fundamental change, which is why I’ve said we need to stop tinkering around the edges and dig in and make some changes.

Once again, I’d love to have those conversations with committee and I’m looking forward to that opportunity. At this point, I’m not prepared to take forward an idea of splitting these departments. I think integration, working together and not creating more silos – we’ve all heard everybody say no more silos – isn’t going to help us. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.