I appreciate those comments. So have we had any projects rejected by Canada or is it pretty much a matter of negotiating it through to the end, getting approval? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this week I had the privilege of attending the Feeding Change supper at the Salvation Army. More than 50 individuals, representatives of low income residents and social justice groups and agencies, attended to discuss poverty issues and solutions and share experience and learn about the anti-poverty campaign, Dignity for All.

The Dignity for All campaign is a national movement partnering 14 social justice organizations and endorsed by 175 organizations and increasing numbers of politicians at all levels nationwide. The goals are the creation of a federal...

Again, these dollars that we’re transferring to communities are investments. I am the first to get in line in terms of transferring responsibilities to our communities. We want to do it in a responsible way and I know when I make investments personally, and I suspect most people do this, they make sure that it’s done in a responsible manner and in a manner that gets the better dollar for the buck, the best value for the dollar; recognizing, of course, that you are not just making the investments for the benefit only of the entity that’s receiving the dollars. You have the benefits of all of...

I appreciate the Minister’s confidence in the communities and so on, but you need to base that on evidence. It may be improving, but it’s improving very slowly, as evidenced by, for example, the completion of I believe it’s three community energy plans out of our 33 communities.

We are finessing our communities into a fossil fuel future and that is something we can no longer tolerate as a society. We know what the costs are. There is no excuse for that anymore. Simply putting in these building standards will plug that hole immediately and bring immediate benefits to the communities.

We know...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Committee wishes to go on to the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I can’t help but make my perennial comment here. This commitment, obviously, I think to date we’ve spent somewhere in the order of $9 million looking after our tank farms and there are new federal regulations requiring additional monitoring equipment and fairly expensive equipment and so on. Of course, we have these tank farms in many of our communities. Again, I hope that this is brought into the accounting equation when we consider other energy infrastructure; for example, the Biomass Strategy implementation, should we get around to that when talking about what we...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Once again, I appreciate those comments. I suppose the last question, really, is, is there a time frame -- given that we’re slightly over halfway through our term here, and I’d like to see some good progress here, I know many of us would and it sounds like the Deputy Premier as well -- that we can expect for this initiative to come from Cabinet or does he see Social Programs leading that effort? Thank you.

Thank you for the comments, Deputy Premier. I think certainly those comments reflect where many of us are. Given that a well thought out and implemented strategy with ongoing evaluation is demonstrably more effective than independent reactive policies, such as we put in place now -- and we have put a lot in place, I’m the first to admit that -- what action is this government willing to take to now move to the next level of developing a comprehensive strategic plan to tackle the issue? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s my great pleasure to welcome people belonging to the Goyatiko Language Society in Dettah. First, I’d like to recognize Mary Rose Sundberg, instructor, and her students: Lena Drygeese, Francis Betsina, Nora Crookedhand, Stella Martin, Andrew Crapeau and Margaret Baillargeon. Welcome to the House. Maybe a hand for those people, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Also, Mr. Speaker, we had students and teachers of Grade 6 Weledeh School. It was great to have them in the House. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted.