Of course.
I'll exclude the pension plans, because they are sustainable over the long term. That's the conclusion we came to, just as we had expected.
The major conclusions from the fiscal sustainability report were that the overall government sector was sustainable over the long term. By that we mean a period of 75 years, based on the current status of the policies. In other words, if we were to go into autopilot with the current policies for a 75-year period, there would not be a perpetual increase in debt.
However, the situation is better at the federal level than in the provinces as a whole. The federal situation, when we assessed it in July, was sustainable over the long term. For the provinces and territories, taken together, the situation is not. The explanation for this discrepancy is that most federal expenditures are limited by GDP growth. What we're talking about here are the transfers to the provincial governments and to individuals. In contrast, the principal provincial expenditures are rising, mainly because of the aging population. Elderly or very old people require a lot more health care than those under 65 or under 50. That's what explains the disparity.