Thank you for your question.
Our ask is actually for $19.44 million. That would close the gap between what we need to deliver the programs that were designed to fulfill the mandate as outlined within the convention or the treaty under which we were formed. The $19.44 million would close the gap of $8.84 million that currently exists. That's the ask.
I should point out that these programs are developed from the ground up. We develop the programs with the mandate in mind and we cost the programs, and then the programs are apportioned to each country in concert with the treaty agreement as to how each country would contribute.
The U.S. has met its obligation in fulfilling those programs as they have been costed, but there is a gap in Canada, and the U.S. for quite some time now has been subsidizing that gap. After years of that subsidy, however, we now see that subsidy going away for various reasons in the United States.
This is why we're sort of at a critical point right now. There is no surplus in our budget, so as that subsidy goes away, that gap is really critically important, or else the programs have to be curtailed, which would be devastating to us.
Bear in mind that these—