Veuillez m'excuser. I'm going to answer in English, but my colleague over here might want to add something.
First, these numbers haven't been pulled out of the air. The numbers have basically been derived from two major studies, one by Booz Allen, one by McKinsey & Company. Also, we have similar sorts of numbers when studies have been taken in the U.S., certainly when projects like this have been rolled out in the NHS system in England, and certainly in the Scandinavian countries, etc., and in Australia when they've done the numbers.
The simple fact is this. For years we haven't invested in these systems, because it's very difficult at times to sell these infrastructure systems to the public. It's much easier to sell another doctor, another nurse, another MRI machine, another piece of equipment. If you're really going to transform the system, then you have to have some evidence-based medicine in which to work, and this is the way it brings you evidence-based medicine, by having these technologies.
Look at the financial industry. It would not be able to perform today without the kind of computerization it put in. Let me tell you, that in itself took 20 years and a lot of money. When they transformed that industry, they were spending anywhere up to 12% of all their revenues. Today they're spending probably about 6%, because the systems, the ATMs, are there.
In Canada we're spending anywhere between 1.5% and 2% on information technology, and that's right across the country. We can't make these kinds of changes unless we get it up to about 4%, but it's a very tough sell to be able to do that.
In terms of the benefits, I don't think treasury's going to take out that $6 billion and $7 billion. I can tell you that with the tsunami of our aging population and chronic disease, they really are going to be in a position where we can expand the capacity, improve the access, if we put these systems in place.
Mike.