Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, I can clarify that. In my remarks, I described the withholding process within the FPFAA with respect to the CST, which is that if there is a minimum residency requirement placed in the laws of the province, the Minister of Employment and Social Development is required by statute to go through a process that's set out in the statute to determine what the violation is and the degree of the violation and to make a report.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think my earlier comment was that the minimum residency prohibition ensures that there is access to social assistance across the country, but there was no requirement through the Canada social transfer regarding how that is done or regarding any other aspect of social assistance.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I can just add the citation from the Canada Health Act, Section 11. It's called portability. Under 11. (1) (a) of the Canada Health Act: (1) In order to satisfy the criterion respecting portability, the health care insurance plan of a province (a) must not impose any minimum period of residence in the province, or waiting period, in excess of three months before residents of the province are eligible for or entitled to insured health services.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  No, we wouldn't have done a study.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Sorry, what would the...? I'd just want some clarification on the motivation.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes. The department uses Statistics Canada population counts to determine the per capita allocation, and that does include them.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I guess my response to that question would be that the Canada social transfer is a contribution towards the provincial and territorial costs of providing programs and services in three broad areas. It's a contribution towards it, so in terms—

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That's correct. It won't have any impact on transfer payments because no other aspect of the Canada social transfer is being affected. The equal per capita allocation of the total amount that's set in legislation for the year is going to apply regardless.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I have nothing to add to that, no.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think with respect to the $20-million penalty, you are referring to an incident with the Province of British Columbia. On December 1, 1995, they put in place a three-month residency requirement for those collecting social assistance who were arriving from other provinces and countries.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I guess, first off, from my understanding of what British Columbia put in place, it was a global restriction, so it applied to those arriving from the rest of Canada and from out of country. To the extent that the specific proposal in C-43 is that a minimum residency requirement could not apply to Canadian citizens, so those who were coming from other provinces and moving to B.C., that would still constitute a violation of the Canada social transfer today, and so the Minister of Employment and Social Development would be required to embark upon the withholding process that is laid out in the act and refer the matter to Governor in Council for a withholding as it saw fit.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  No, there would not be a penalty for a province that chose not to introduce a minimum wait period.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It's left to the provinces how to allocate across. It's a very general facilitative—

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That's not in the bill. What I can say is there is no change to the equal per capita allocation. We take the data on population counts from Statistics Canada and we use that as the basis for our equal per capita allocation. That does not change in the amendments proposed in this bill.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The Canada health transfer and the Canada social transfer were both created in fiscal year 2004-05 out of the split of what was then the Canada health and social transfer. It was a combined transfer for all health and social purposes. In 2004-05 it was split to increase the transparency of what the government was supporting through health and through social.