Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to begin by saying I am very happy with our COVID response to date. We have one active case right now, and it was a scary case a couple of weeks ago when we were risking community spread. By all accounts, it looks like our response at our borders has been great to date. We are one of the best jurisdictions in testing. I am very grateful we are getting these staff. I have no issue with the COVID secretariat as a whole. I think it is needed. I do have issues asking the Legislative Assembly to pass the costs projected for the isolation centres when there seems to be a consensus that those costs will not actually be what we are passing today.

I have heard a number of options, and I am happy to see the commitment of variance reporting. I think maybe an accountant would say: MLA Johnson, the appropriation is just an estimate, and then the actuals are what actually matter, and the reporting and the variance reporting is what actually matters. However, the Minister of Finance has often told me that, if I want to ask for more things, then I have to ask what I would remove from the budget. I, at the very beginning of this session, said I wanted to see more money for housing and I want to see more money for the municipal infrastructure gap. I recognize we are dealing with a supplemental appropriation and that that it is not the capital estimates, but those things are related. If we move $5 million from the operations budget, that means there is more money in capital. It gives us money to work. I will do my best as an MLA that, when I ask for something, I give Cabinet an idea of where I would like it removed from. I have asked for $5 million for municipalities. I know they took a beating due to COVID. I am happy to hear that this funding pool could actually be used by them if we match the dollars.

I will be bringing a motion to remove $5 million from the isolation centres. One of the problems is: the way this supplementary appropriation works is it's essentially one line item. I don't want to remove $5 million from the staff. I don't want to remove $5 million from testing. I don't want to remove $5 million from PPE. I don't want to remove $5 million from the border. I am happy with those things. I am just not convinced that the projection in front of us has the homework done to actually find the cost-savings for the isolation centres. I heard from my colleague MLA Lafferty that he will be bringing a motion. I believe, procedurally, the best way for me to do this would be to wait until his motion and then bring mine to remove $5 million after.

I have one more comment. I want to clarify that, if this money is removed and we don't find those cost savings, which it seems everyone wants to find, there is nothing stopping government from coming back with another supplemental appropriation in the next sitting. There is nothing stopping them from saying, "We tried. We did the variance reporting. Sorry, we need that $5 million for isolation centres back." However, the way I see it, we're going to find that cost saving. I as a Member of the Legislative Assembly don't want to approve money that probably won't be spent because my experience with departments is that, usually, they just make a race to spend it all in the fiscal and I don't have the democratic oversight of that money. Thank you, Mr. Chair.