Finance committee  I think we can be pretty confident of some outcomes with respect to the housing and basket of services, but there's no panacea in this field. What I would point out is that of that $97 million that was asked for earlier for other supports--research and so on--about $50 million wa

Finance committee  It's an interesting idea; again, it's not an area of my expertise, but it's one that deserves inquiry. I think what we need to be cautious about--and I'm speaking extemporaneously here--is this funding we're talking about. We want to make sure it's reaching people with mental hea

Finance committee  Yes, and I don't want to get caught in terms of arguing for taking money away that could be of benefit to other Canadians as well, when a solution that is being proposed, at least by the Kirby-Keon report, is revenue neutral. I think that's where I would leave it at the present t

Finance committee  Well, I'm not the expert in terms of.... If your question is looking at trade-offs within the spirits, wine, and liquor field in terms of excise tax, I couldn't respond to it. I think the main point is that it's discretionary spending when Canadians choose to drink one thing or a

Finance committee  Thank you. I appreciate your question, because we have to recall that not just the federal government but a number of governments across the country went through considerable cost-cutting 10-plus years ago, and we're recovering from that still. What we are looking at is social

Finance committee  Yes, thank you, and I will briefly. One of the significant elements in there is to set up a knowledge exchange network, which we lack now across Canada, to do, among other things, what you were describing at the conference you were recently at, and that is to promote the identif

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Pallister, and thanks to the members of the committee for this opportunity to contribute to the work of budget formulation. The B.C. Alliance for Accountable Mental Health and Addictions is composed of eleven organizations; the names are attached to our brief. We'