It is a technical budget reporting discrepancy, but there actually is no proposed reduction in legal aid financing by the federal government for this year. What happened last year is that with the federal election at the end of November and a new government taking office in the winter, there was not sufficient time for cabinet to address this issue in the regular budget cycle. Accordingly, there is a discrepancy, as Ms. Barnes has indicated, of approximately $40 million. It is the intention of the minister to seek that amount in supplemental estimates such that the entire amount for legal aid for this fiscal year will equal the amount of last year.
What happened is that on March 31, 2006, the three-year agreement with the provinces expired, and as I said, because a new government was in power and did not have sufficient time to discuss this issue with the provinces to negotiate a new agreement, the government decided to extend the terms of the existing three-year agreement for one more year at the 2005-06 levels.