I simply wanted to say that I wouldn't offer an opinion on the imbalance, but Mr. Dulude mentioned a cash transfer of $3.235 billion in 2008-2009 for what's called the Canada Social Transfer. Obviously, the Canada Social Transfer goes to assistance for early childhood, postsecondary education and social programs. Those amounts are paid to each of the provinces based on the agreements.
For example, for postsecondary education, the total amount was $3.2 billion. It must be clearly understood that postsecondary education means the college as well as university levels and that the systems vary somewhat from province to province. For example, earlier we were talking with Mr. Petit about the specific case of Quebec, where postsecondary education represents a whole. In Quebec, since the pre-university level is included in the college level, a portion of the funding or of the larger Canada Social Transfer goes to the CEGEP sector. We're talking about a 60-40 proportion in Quebec, in round figures: 60% to the universities and 40% to the colleges to cover the pre-university portion of pre-university college education.
In the rest of Canada, precisely because the systems are different, we're talking about a 70-30 ratio instead. So we take that into account.
In response to Mr. Petit, we don't consider the pre-university component as part of our association. These are really two different wholes because they are different education systems. In Quebec, they've chosen to establish a somewhat different system from that of Ontario and British Columbia, and so on.
I simply wanted to clarify those ratios in response to your remarks and that of Mr. Petit.