Thank you. As a former finance and health minister for the Nunavut government when we were dealing with the cuts to education and health, I can tell you it was very difficult. We didn't have that predictable funding arrangement.
Our government has stated that we will continue the growth to the jurisdictions. The provinces and territories deliver health care. They know their areas best in terms of the resources, and they'll be able to allocate accordingly.
The predictable funding transfers to jurisdictions allow us to think long term about how we address health care in Canada. Ten years is not long enough. We're still rolling out the 2004 accord priorities, and the Health Council of Canada has been able to report some progress, but the 10 years is not up yet. So in terms of going forward with jurisdictions, looking at the accomplishments of that 2004 accord, predictable funding will allow us to focus on areas where we need to focus collectively, as a nation. But we can't deliver health care and improve health care when we're dealing with cuts, and that's what we were dealing with back in 2003, and in 1998 and 1999, those years.
I can say the predictability goes a long way when you need to deal with long-term planning around health care.