Sure.
Obviously we looked at the direct costs through higher fuel prices and higher prices on energy that households directly consume, such as the gas they put in their cars and the heat they need to generate in winter. God knows it's been long this year. We also looked at the higher prices for gas and for electricity generation in provinces where electricity is generated using fuel-based sources, such as Saskatchewan. We factored in these direct costs paid by households, but we also know, obviously, that most of the goods that Canadian households buy also have a fuel component to them.
For example, if you buy something at a supermarket, it's been transported to the supermarket. The transport that's inherent in these goods that people buy has a fuel component, so we used input/output tables to figure out how much carbon-based fuel is input in each production factor in each transaction, in each good that consumers buy, and factored that into the equation, assuming that all of the increases get passed on to consumers, which is consistent with the literature. We estimated the increase in the prices or the amounts that households will have to pay for some goods, as well as their energy consumption.
That's the payment side. On the other hand, we also looked at how much the federal climate incentive plan will reimburse Canadians, assuming that 90% of the proceeds from the charge will be reimbursed to households. We did that as an average, but we also looked at consumption patterns based on income quintile, and that's why we have different net impacts by income quintile.
Lower-quintile households obviously tend to spend less. There are fewer people in lowest-quintile households. Obviously, if there are two working persons in the household, the household tends to be higher up on the income scale. As you go higher on the income scale, you tend to find that there are more people in the household, and the larger the household, the more they tend to consume fuel-based products, as well as energy in general. That's how we derived the estimates that we have.
In summary, the conclusion is that the majority of households will receive more on a net basis than they will pay. The exception is the 20% of households with the highest income. They will be net contributors.
Of course, that's an average. It doesn't mean that every single household in the lower-income quintiles will be receiving more. It depends on the particular lifestyle and consumption patterns. That's a criticism that's been addressed to us, but obviously it's an average by income quintile and by province.