Yes. I was told when I first came here to Ottawa that for any number the government budgeted for, you could basically double that to be accurate, and that for anything that involves IT, it can be tripled.
You did answer what my next question was going to be by giving me some examples of where the federal government accurately budgeted and delivered a large program. I'll move on, then, to my province of Alberta. As you know, in Alberta there's a growing number of people who are upset with the equalization program. I have talked to a lot of people who tell me that Alberta would be able to offer more services, such as pharmacare, if they didn't have to pay so much in equalization.
Quebec has been the largest beneficiary of equalization payments over the years. This was the model chosen for this study, if I'm correct. Why did we pick Quebec as the foundation for this study? Was that something that we did as a committee to instruct the PBO? Can you talk a bit about why we chose Quebec?