Thank you, and thank you very much, Professor Good.
I'd like to go back to this issue that's come up about the timing of the budget and the estimates. Many witnesses have recommended that this timing be aligned, let's say, by doing the budget a few months earlier. I don't think I've heard any good reason to the contrary, why this would be a bad thing to do, other than that it would disturb long-standing tradition.
My first question is, are there any true counter-arguments? Let's suppose there are not. So my second question is, why has it been talked about all these years and never happened? One can think of bureaucratic resistance. Would it be Finance officials resisting giving information to their Treasury Board brethren in advance, or would Treasury Board be concerned?
Finally, at the political level, I think especially when it's a budget of cuts, politically government might resist giving out the details in a timely fashion because if they give out the details a year from now, everyone will have moved on. I think in your opening statement you regretted the fact that the budget information would not be included in the May documents, so maybe there's a political motivation for that as well.
I know that's more than one question, but I'd appreciate your views.