Jane Groenewegen

I will ask the Sergeant-at-Arms to please bring the witnesses to the table.

For the record, Minister Beaulieu, could you please introduce your witnesses.

Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. I would like to ask Minister Beaulieu if he would now like to bring witnesses into the Chamber.

Is committee agreed?

I’d like to call Committee of the Whole back to order. We are on general comments on the 2014-15 Main Estimates. Are there any general comments? If not, are we ready to move on to the Department of Human Resources?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. After the last response from Ms. Bassi-Kellett, actually she touched on almost everything that I was thinking about talking about. Hmmm, I don’t have any general comments anymore.

I wasn’t aware of some of the work that she’s referred to that was actually going on in the department. As an MLA, I guess on the front lines of dealing with constituents, you do get a lot of concerns raised by people who think that the system doesn’t work for them in terms of getting into the public service. You get concerns from people who are priority 1 hires, who think that the Affirmative...

Thank you. Does committee agree?

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Beaulieu.

One only needs to turn on the news and you can see families fleeing war-torn countries. You can see people in refugee camps. Do you know how many people wake up in the morning curled up in the fetal position because they don’t have any food?

I guess what I’m trying to say is, yes, we’re fighting amongst ourselves about our budget, but can we stop for a minute and just be very, very thankful for what we have, because a sense of entitlement and a spirit of ingratitude is a very dangerous and unhappy place to live. We are a land of opportunity.

We, the government, can we do better? Yes, we can do...

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister Beaulieu.

Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. Ms. Bassi-Kellett.