Let's take a look at a basic income approach. How would it work? If the federal government brought in a basic income, a guaranteed annual income supplement such as we have for seniors, if we just brought it down five years, from 65 to 60, then all those Canadians who filled out the part of a form that had their income at a certain level would get topped up, and they would not be living beneath the poverty line.
Clearly, on a slip-year basis, so as to give the provinces time, when you looked at your transfers, the amount of money transferred for welfare would be reduced. That would give the provinces more money, because they don't have to match, and it would also provide some managing and balancing relief for the feds as to how much they transferred over time, because the matter would be addressed from within their own fiscal system.
We do it now in a host of ways, largely by meeting with the provinces on a regular basis and working out a new formula. We're operating under one formula now with respect to health care, and I assume the provinces and Ottawa will have to start meeting relatively soon to discuss what the formula going forward should be. This could be the sort of thing that is introduced into that discussion, if there were some political will to do so.