Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, we’ve heard the Minister’s 2010 budget address and the main estimates have been tabled in the House. As I listened yesterday, I was struck by a particular statement in the Finance Minister’s address. He said that we’ll have to return to, “a sustainable path,” and, “maintain a tight rein on spending in the fiscal year following this new budget.”

I support our current level of spending and I support the same level of spending for the 2010-11 year as it’s laid out in the budget. But I recognize, as does the Minister, that we will have to reduce or cut back our...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess I would like to change course just a tad. I’ve expressed a concern that we are probably going to see a reduction in our revenues over the next year to two years and I think the federal government, with a $60 billion deficit, is likely to take our grants and reduce them and I anticipate that’s probably going to start happening next year. So I would like to know from the Minister whether or not the program review office is taking that kind of an approach to reducing our expenditures. Are they considering that our revenues will probably be down and what are they...

Thank you. We could argue about the participation on the Strategic Infrastructure committees all day and I’ll leave that one for now, thank you very much. Perhaps the Minister and I could have a conversation later.

I’d like to ask, relative to the work of the program review office in the past year, if the work they’ve been doing in terms of education has not had an impact on the budget, I also understand there’s been some work in terms of medical travel and so on. I’d like to know whether or not that has had an impact on the budget. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister mentioned a couple of areas. I can’t remember them both but he mentioned education. I would like to know whether or not, particularly in the area of education, whether the work of the program review office had a direct impact on the budget which we heard about yesterday. Thank you.

I thank the Minister for that response. Unfortunately, I am aware of the results of the office study and, as I mentioned, I felt it was very well done. It’s hard for me to believe that in the last year, if it’s only been a year-- it seems like it’s a lot longer than that -- but in the last year to 18 months the office hasn’t been able to produce some other finite project. So I’d like to ask the Minister, once a project is finished, does the office produce a report on the project that it has undertaken and completed, and who receives that report? Thank you.

Does the Minister of the Executive already know the areas that will be targeted for the 2011 budget? If so, will he let Regular Members and the public know? I say again, for the sake of transparency, this kind of information must be shared and I will have some of these questions for the Minister of the Executive at the appropriate time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a number of comments and they are general. I am generally pleased with the budget as it has been presented.

I think, as I stated earlier in my Member’s statement today, I approve of the fiscal strategy that we’re following. I think that we did need to maintain our spending in the fiscal year that we’re currently in and I think that we need to maintain that spending over the next fiscal year to try and counteract the effects of the downturn in our economy nationally. I believe that we need to maintain the spending levels over this next fiscal year in order to do...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess I would like to advise the Minister that we would have gladly asked for the data if we had known that it was available. I take her statement to mean that it’s a commitment to provide it to committee. So I look forward to receiving that info.

In terms of the consultation, she said something about three months. I didn’t quite understand exactly what that is referencing. If I could get a bit more of a firm or definite statement as to which months she’s referencing when this consultation with the public will start. Thank you.

I thank the Minister for that response. I do acknowledge that we received a letter recently from the Minister. It provided some insight into what’s been going on, but it had very little detail. It describes the actions which she just told us about, but I was particularly struck by the statement in the letter which says this public working group was presented with detailed program information. I wondered why that detailed program information was not also available to Members. If the Minister could answer that question? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s my pleasure to recognize a constituent and a representative from the Union of Northern Workers, Barb Wyness, who is the public relations and research officer, up there in the gallery behind me. Thank you.