Sir, I certainly agree with the premise that it is a different fiscal situation facing the federal government as a result of some tough actions with respect to the Canada health transfer, the freezing of direct program spending for five years, effectively, and the change to age eligibility for OAS.
The provinces have a gap of 2%. To provide some perspective on that, it's a significant gap, and it will grow as we move through this aging demographic transition over the next 20 years.
There is a cost to delaying action at the provincial level. I mean, it is our sense that the provinces are facing, like the Canadian economy in general, the economy operating slightly below potential. They may want to wait a number of years to take that action. But we think two percentage points of GDP is perhaps manageable. It's something they can deal with. The PBO is not forecasting unmanageable debt loads.