The gross budget for this year is larger than the gross budget for last year. However, when the province gives you additional money, they typically earmark it for very specific things such as a new program, a new initiative, or whatever. The wiggle room or the discretionary budget we have after certain priority programs are paid for is actually shrinking. As our heating bill goes up, for example, we don't get any more money for the heating bill.
We're being squeezed on some of these non-aligned expenditures, so we're having to cut. For example, we're taking ESL funding from children who are new to Canada and we're using that ESL funding to pay our heating bill. So last night we had to make some tough choices. But the gross is actually going up, based mostly on salary increases, 2% increases per year for the next three years. That money has come from local property taxpayers.
Your piece of the puzzle doesn't solve all the world's problems, but if we can plug that into some things that children need...or we could be creative--and I'm speaking to a member of the government side here. We could be creative, and if you wanted to give us that GST rebate and earmark it for energy efficiency projects or to plug it back into some neat, innovative things, we would entertain that.
There are lots of ways of doing this in a smart way so that we can provide an ongoing dividend for years to come.