Thank you, Chair. And thank you to our witness, once again.
Please correct me if I'm wrong in these numbers that I'm quoting, but it's my understanding that equalization to Quebec has been increased by some 44% from 2006 to 2010; this year alone, $19.3 billion in federal support to Quebec; equalization alone $8.5 billion to the province of Quebec, which is nearly 80% higher than it was in 2005, slightly above the growth of inflation, I would think. And health transfers for all provinces continue to increase at around 6%. Social transfers increased at around 3% for all provinces, to try to be fair. Please correct me if I'm wrong on those figures.
My question is, these transfers that are in the budget, my guess is that each province that has already tabled a budget has actually put these numbers into their budgeting process and are counting on that. Am I correct in that assumption?