Human Resources committee  To finish off very quickly, the coordination of government services has been very difficult, and the ministerial committee has been important in allowing us to coordinate the bureaucracy and be able to respond as we need to respond.

Human Resources committee  No, this is not something I see as the provincial government's responsibility to enforce. This is about creating an environment where people have the opportunity to participate fully. That means being able to participate to the level at which they wish to participate. If somebody chooses to engage or not to engage, then I would suggest to you that this is exactly what we would want somebody to be able to do, to have the choice to do that.

Human Resources committee  As a provincial government, we do assist parents—single parents, two-parent families—with child care. The challenge we face is the number of spaces available and the areas where the spaces are available in terms of our geographic spread. We're such a big province. Not all areas have regulated day care spaces available.

Human Resources committee  I will tell you that we do. As I said before, we will subsidize child care for people. I just want to re-emphasize that it is still a major challenge in terms of being able to provide adequate child care within the province. And it is something we are working hard to try to overcome.

Human Resources committee  I'll ask Aisling to respond to you on that one, Mr. Lake, if I may.

Human Resources committee  First of all, when we talk about social exclusion, we're talking about individuals who aren't able to participate fully in the social or economic activities of society and are thereby not able to reach their full potential. We want people to be able to be the best they can be. We want people to realize their full potential.

Human Resources committee  I think I understand what you're asking, Mr. Savage, and I'll give you an example of a meeting that occurred as recently as this morning. But first I'll take you back to just before our budget. I received a letter from the executive director of the local chapter of the Canadian Mental Health Association indicating that he had distinct concerns about housing for persons who had mental health issues and the difficulty with those individuals being able to maintain housing, even if it was available, because of the mental health issues they had.

Human Resources committee  I think the impacts of the cuts are well known. I won't spend a lot of time talking about the impact; it only makes the job that much more difficult. What I will say to you is in terms of literacy. I referenced earlier is that we, as a government, now provide textbooks free of charge to all school children in our province from K to 12.

Human Resources committee  No. We haven't.

Human Resources committee  I'll turn it over to Aisling in a second, but I will just say to you that we have been measuring, because there are existing measurement tools out there. So it's not that we've not measured. We've taken some, such as the LICO, for instance, and we've used that. There is a federal market basket measure that we've used.

Human Resources committee  Having a measurement and a baseline by which to judge ourselves was important. It wasn't that we didn't recognize the importance of it, but we recognized around the table, in discussion with the community, that it was going to take some time. People did not feel it was appropriate for us to wait until those discussions had occurred and those measurements and baselines had been established before we started on our reduction strategy.

Human Resources committee  You'll be happy to know that it still is.

Human Resources committee  First of all, Mr. Martin, let me say that we will be successful with our plan because we are committed to it. If the federal government comes on side with a national plan and works with the provinces, we believe we will achieve success that much earlier. We've made a commitment to this as a government, so we're going to make sure that we succeed.

Human Resources committee  Thank you very much. I will ask Aisling to try to give you some information to respond to your question.

Human Resources committee  In terms of what remains of the 1999 agreement, I really wouldn't be able to give you a comprehensive answer to that, because in terms of building our poverty reduction strategy, we have really started with what we believe to be a new strategy. I have not referenced the 1999 agreement in terms of the initiatives we have brought forward.