Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to thank all of our witnesses for being here today for this extremely important study.
I just got back on the finance committee so I wasn't involved in the earlier portions of the study and I'm playing a little bit of catch-up.
I have some fairly basic questions. My first question really has to do with the equalization transfer and the principle around it. I think I'll start with the Parliamentary Budget Officer on this one, and if anyone else wants to weigh in, they can.
The basic principle is something like this, that the equalization transfer is to allow for similar standards of social services across all provinces and territories at similar levels of taxation.
Is that more or less correct?