Thank you, Minister, for being here this morning.
I'm delighted to have the opportunity to ask you about federal funding for health, food security and the social sector, overall, and about the impact of those investments, when a province, territory, sector or municipality chooses to pull back on its investment, because the federal government has stepped up. That's a very important issue in my riding.
I represent the riding of University—Rosedale, where I've been speaking with advocates for food security. As a former health executive, I've observed this phenomenon in action: The federal government declares a priority and wishes to invest to make lives better for Canadians. I won't name names, but a given municipality, province or private sector player then sees that investment as an invitation to get out of funding the existing programs themselves, such that we don't see any net improvements, necessarily, on the front lines.
I'm curious about whether you could speak to where in the spring economic update you see risks in that regard.
What tools do we have to respond to that?