Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to ask a few quick questions here. I appreciated the Minister’s opening remarks, although at lightning speed. I read every third or fourth paragraph as he was whipping along.

The first one was I wasn’t clear what role the Minister has in decision-making in the various environmental review processes for land, water and resources. I see where he says the department plays a role, but where does the Minister enter into the decisions?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Is this the area that would include the CIMP work, the Cumulative Impact Monitoring Program work? If so, what do we expect? I know that has been a work in progress for many years and I think the intent has been to be able to identify thresholds that would help guide industry.

Does the Minister know where we’re at on that and when we can expect to have that sort of information? I know this actually hasn’t started yet, so I’m not expecting the Minister to be fully on top of this yet, but I would be interested in that information. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister. On the waste reduction side of things, we’ve talked annually for many years about the need to start on recycling of electronics and tires and perhaps some other things and start moving towards an extended producer responsibility in the areas where we can. What’s been our progress in those oft repeated goals?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Being the first, welcome to the Minister and his staff for this budget review. Thank you for your introductory comments here.

I guess I’m interested in some of the savings, the energy savings and so on. The Minister noted the 13.5 litres of fuel and almost $1.5 million worth of utilities. Just to put that in perspective, and I know the department is now sort of the utilities department for the whole government, what is our total fuel consumption for the purposes of heating specifically and maybe you could define the utilities? Are we talking about electricity there or are...

The Minister and I have the same goals and what I’m saying is, after decades of failure, keeping people in poverty, recognizing this government’s commitment to get out of poverty, help people get out of poverty, let’s do some changes here and I’m suggesting some.

The Minister recently announced a clearly sensible policy that recipients of Student Financial Assistance will only have to report every three months instead of monthly. We are all aware that we have to fill out our annual tax returns pretty soon.

Why does the department continue to require that income support paperwork be completed...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you to the deputy minister there. That is certainly substantial progress going from predominantly cows to less than 65 percent or less than 35 percent, I suppose that would be cows, 40 or 35 percent. That is certainly progress and I would certainly support the department in working on further progress on that front. I know it’s difficult. I mean, there are some cultural considerations and practices here, so it’s a tough situation, but I think the deputy minister is right. Without backing off on a cow harvest, the potential for recovery will be much reduced. I...

In terms of the budget before us, are there dollars here to start work on renewing these strategies in this fiscal year given that this fiscal year covers the date that they will be ending?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I probably missed it, but I’m just wondering what happened to the $1 million for the Biomass Energy Strategy. That’s on page 46, in the middle of page 46. Contributions last year were $1 million, scheduled to be $1.7 million but ended up being $1 million, and the year before that, $1.75 million. This year, zip.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to follow up from my Member’s statement earlier today with questions for the Minister of ECE. I would like to know why we treat people differently, depending on how much money they make. Recognizing that the Minister is working hard on this issue, could the Minister explain what is the underlying philosophy as to why the system his department operates inherently treats people who are living in poverty with less respect than other people? Thank you.

That sounds pretty exciting. Good luck. Thank you.