Just to follow on from the deputy's comments, the accrual basis for accounting for capital has important impacts on decision-makers, because it provides the full cost of the asset, and the full cost of the asset is important in terms of determining whether the particular investment should go forward.
As the committee already knows, the initial expenditure will be on a cash basis. It's the purchase of the asset. It will hit the surplus deficit line once you start amortizing it, which is once the asset comes into play and into service. That enables the government to take on more capital investments than if it did it on a cash basis. On a cash basis, it would be an immediate hit to the bottom line. Ontario's $12 billion to $13 billion annual investment in capital assets is a cash number in the budget. Behind the budget, where we talk about the financing of it, you will see the depreciation and the amortization cost.
The public will clearly be able to see how much the government is placing in terms of renewing the capital asset base as determined by the depreciation account, so right off the bat, there is transparency in terms of the adequacy of the investment. This assumes that you've made an adequate investment to begin with in terms of the overall stock in the provincial assets overall.
Assuming that investment has been made, it provides an annual check on whether those assets are being kept up in terms of renewal and recycling, which speaks to the efficient allocation of resources to the capital budget.