As I mentioned, for about $5 billion of the various transfers, there are conditions that the moneys have to be spent for the purposes of that program. For some of the large transfers—I recall an audit we did on the health transfer—there is of course the Canada Health Act, which has a number of conditions. Things may have changed, but the last time we looked at it—which I believe was in 2002—while there were conditions, there was actually no enforcement of those conditions. Then for the bulk, such as these trust funds, there are essentially no conditions. So the provinces do not have to spend the money for the purposes intended, although they may have a moral obligation to do so, and there is no accountability back to the federal government, though there would be, of course, accountability to their populations.
On February 10th, 2009. See this statement in context.