Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, when we are looking at this budget, I am looking at the stuff we are missing right now and why the rationale. We need this in there. I guess our first initiative we talked about was youth-in-crisis. Unfortunately, we have seen a lot of crisis and a lot of deaths in our ridings lately. I think we need to be spending more time on the prevention, intervention, that is needed. I am not just talking about youth, but I am talking about the whole generation. People are passing life through crisis and that. I am looking at the department to put in initiatives and put more funding into it.

The second challenge I find is the anti-poverty funding. I have been to two of the last two anti-poverty conferences as a Member of the Legislative Assembly, and I have attended previously as part of my job. I understand the department is doing some really good work. Unfortunately, I find the funding is limited. We only get to spend little bits of money across the board. I have heard the department talk about the importance of an avenue for them to leverage other money from other agencies and other organizations out there. However, I think we need to put a little bit more money into it. I honestly do.

I think the work that the department and these NGOs is doing is greatly needed. They are doing a really good job. My struggle, though, is that we are only putting $500 or half a million dollars into it. There are over a million, a million and a half, requests. That, to me, is a challenge. I honestly believe that more money needs to be put in there because I think that would help the NGOs do their job, but also the department to continue to do their good work. It is kind of a catch-22.

I understand what the government and the department are saying, but I also firmly believe in my heart, if we want to help these people, this is what we need to do. We need to help these organizations to grow and do better work that they are out there doing right now. To me, it's their nickeling-and-diming. That is where they are. They are pinching pennies to get it. It's sad to hear that this is the direction. I am not blaming the department because you put a half a million dollars in there, but I think we need a little bit more.

My other concern I want to talk about is the homecare services, and I understand that the department is working on the ability to put a plan together and they're working on that. I appreciate the government for the work they're doing and they're not trying to rush in, but at the same time we need this money, I think, for our homecare. However, if there's no agreement from the department because they're working on it, then I'm looking at the department to make a commitment that if they're successful in doing the work that they're doing and they're able to get it done before our budget year is done they will be committed to try and get a supplement back into this government, so we're able to implement the great ideas in the work that they're doing for our respected seniors and our elders in the communities, because they are very important to me and everyone here, including my colleagues from Cabinet, and I understand that, and the department.

If the plan is done, I'm hoping that the Minister can make the commitment to actually implement this. Besides that, I have to congratulate the department on the work they’ve done. I've been very happy overall. I've been able to, with the opportunity with the Minister, to have some discussions with the deputy minister on some ideas I've had to help benefit the youth and the seniors and people in the territory, and I appreciate that opportunity.

As the Minister says, sometimes we may not agree to agree and we might have difference of opinions, but we're trying to work on the same direction towards that, so I thank the department for that, and I thank the committee and everybody here allowing me to first. Thank you, Mr. Chair.