Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I appreciate everyone being here. We have 13 or 14 departments and ministries represented at today's meeting, so it's nice to see the accessibility we're being granted as parliamentarians as we are considering voting on vote 40.
Before I get into some detailed questions about some of the department budgeting and funding, one of my colleagues earlier alluded to the debt of a province here. The estimates and the budgeting process really have no impact on the deficit or surplus. Is that correct? Isn't that more of a policy set by the government? The process we're going through today would have no impact, I think, on the deficit or surplus of a current year, would it?