With regard to measuring per car, we would measure per vehicle produced in Canada, not per vehicle sold in Canada. It is the cost of production that this enters into.
We have analyzed the impact of health expenses per vehicle in our Canadian facilities. On average, across the big three industry that we represent, about $150 to $170 of health costs are built into each vehicle that's assembled in Canada. That's dramatically lower than the situation in the United States, where it's over $1,000 per vehicle. That reflects both the obviously superior public health system that we have in Canada and the proactive efforts we've been taking, in partnership with the companies, to limit the increase in the health programs they provide.
I can give another illustration of that. In recent years, the rate of increase in total health benefits spending by a company like General Motors and the others has been growing at about 2% per year. This reflects our efforts to do such things as mandatory use of generic drugs in the prescription program and strict spending caps on the different types of health benefits. That's how we can help to control legacy costs.
The legacy cost is the cost that's paid as the result of workers who have done the work in the past--