Mr. Chairman, I would like to raise an issue we've raised for several years about the terminology that's used when we talk about paying down the debt. In fact, what's happening is there's the accumulated deficit, which is the accumulation of all the losses and profits since Confederation. So when government has a surplus of $10 billion, it reduces that accumulated deficit, simply an accounting accumulation.
When you turn to the next page, if you actually look at what everybody would think of as debt, interest-bearing debt, it's the very first number. For example, last year there was a surplus of $13 billion and some. The actual debt reduced by $7 billion.
So there's confusion a bit around the term “debt”, meaning accumulated deficit. They are two different things. We've been trying very hard to get people to not use “debt” for “accumulated deficit”. I say this just so you know that there is a distinction there.