I think the Parliamentary Budget Officer, for the purpose of the long-term projection and for the purpose of presenting a scenario that was taken out over a very long period of time, took an average of expenditures and I think indicated that that's what he was doing and it was getting paired against a particular assumption for GDP.
With respect to extrapolation of past provincial and territorial spending growth figures into the future, and the range that you suggested, I have information here from Prince Edward Island indicating that they will cap health care spending growth at 3.5% in subsequent years. Quebec is indicating a target of no more than 5% annually. Ontario is targeting an average of reduced health-spending growth of 2.1% annually over the next three years. Saskatchewan and British Columbia have also indicated very clear targets.
My intention in reciting that is simply to show there is a realization by provinces and territories, they've known this, that they have to take actions, and they are. So extrapolating past behaviour to the future, I think what we're seeing from provincial and territorial budgets is that in fact there is a change.