Given that I've commented on the equalization program explicitly already, perhaps I could address some of the other programs on which Alberta would be on the negative side of the ledger.
I can understand the logic of provinces that receive the Canada health transfer and therefore have more money to spend on health care than they would have if they were relying only on their own resources, and are therefore willing to accept the federal government's limitations on how they can run their health care system—even when the federal government is requiring them to do things their population would prefer them not to do. It's a lot harder to understand the logic of a province that is a net loser from a system like that and is simultaneously both being made poorer as a result of the net transfers going out of the province and being told by the federal government how it can and cannot run its health care system.
One of the things I think would be very helpful for us as we think about fiscal federalism is to look at the ways in which the federal government is using its spending power to distort provincial priorities. I think we can logically separate those two things from the net flows of funds. I don't quarrel with what you've said about the net flows out of Alberta, but I think it makes sense to look particularly at the programs where, as I said, the federal government is taking money away from a province on a net basis and simultaneously constraining the province's policy choices in ways the province does not like.
I understand, again—