Businessmen and politicians talk of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), of the Bank of Canada's interest rate, of the governmental debt, of a governmental balanced budget, of governmental surpluses, of globalization of the economy and so forth. But what is more important than this specialty vocabulary is the opportunity for people to be healthy and active participants of our communities.

The health of people is not dependent on the growth of the GDP when this growth doesn't translate in the employment of people; and the health of people is not dependent on maintaining higher interest rates to fight inflation at the expense of employment; and the health of people is not dependent on the reduction of the governmental debt when such reduction is accompanied by higher unemployment. What I want to say is that we must change our economic language and emphasise the social growth of people rather than the growth or steering of the GDP.

People are healthy when they are active participants of our communities' life. In Saskatchewan, we have young people and able workers leaving the province, while at the same time we have a growing aboriginal population which has been written off, either because they have been put in jail or because they have been disenfranchised as citizens. Yet, our government prides itself of having balanced the budget and of having the lowest unemployment rate across the country. And now that honourable Janice MacKinnon has announced that she will be quitting politics this coming Spring, Premier Lorne Calvert praises her for her critical role in our government fighting to balance the budget and for bringing the Synchrotron to Saskatoon. We remind Premier Calvert that people come first! People come before a balanced budget, and before the Synchrotron.