Public Accounts committee  I would add only that for the $2.6 billion it was a revision to the Alberta flood liability in the order of about $1.2 billion that actually drove that number as high as it is.

Public Accounts committee  On the expense side, yes, we did well.

Public Accounts committee  Again, this links to our discussion earlier in the session. We continue to garner increased tax revenues because the economy is growing. While tax rates are going down, the economy is growing, people are consuming more, and people are making more money, so we collect more taxes,

Public Accounts committee  I think so. Again, our program expenses are a function of the major transfers, major transfers to provinces, which are effectively tied to nominal GDP growth, so we'll pay more as long as the economy is growing more. Likewise, some of the transfers to persons are indexed, so fo

Public Accounts committee  Go ahead, Bill.

Public Accounts committee  Yes, that's fair. We set out an adjustment for risk, based on potential risks to the economy, in the order of magnitude of $20 billion of nominal GDP. Then, as the year progresses, we unwind it, based on what the actual impacts were on the Canadian economy, on upswings or downtur

Public Accounts committee  Yes.

Public Accounts committee  We accumulated significant.... Fair enough.

Public Accounts committee  When you say “where we're at”—

Public Accounts committee  If you'd just allow me a moment, that would be very helpful.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you for the question. Just to provide some background, the composition of the employment insurance account is driven by revenues collected from EI premiums. Those revenues are driven by total employment in the Canadian economy and also insurable earnings, so as insurable ea

Public Accounts committee  That's it in part. In fact, it's those three things I mentioned: employment; how much people are making, so insurable earnings; and the premium rate setting itself. Those three factors drive the revenues.

Public Accounts committee  I do know. Those numbers are somewhere in this binder, but I don't have them at my fingertips.

Public Accounts committee  Absolutely.

Public Accounts committee  It is just the mathematics of it, the numerator over the denominator. While the numerator is just the nominal level of our tax collection, which can go up, the fact is that our economy is growing faster than that trajectory, so that the overall metric is decreasing. While we cont