This round of budget consultation will be just a shade over $40,000. I would also submit to this House and to the Member that a lot of the suggestions that we get from the people out in the communities are not “just give us more money.” They have all sorts of good concerns. How we hire people, for example. The need to not create roadblocks in that hiring process, creeping credentials, lack of a really good equivalency, slow turnaround in how we respond to people. We, as well, have started the 2,000 people in five years initiative. A lot of the things we are talking about, people are talking about, as well, in terms of being responsive, recruiting our own students and doing a better job in a whole host of areas where we’re already spending a significant amount of money.

These are not futile, after the fact processes that have no bearing, but as we can show you budget to budget and as I will lay it out tomorrow, we have been listening very carefully over the years about how much money we put into social programs, the types of areas that work on prevention. All those things we have done our best to address and we are really prepared to make significant investments with the borrowing limit sorted out and addressing

the cost of living related to energy costs and other areas where we need to apply ourselves and make those critical investments. Thank you.