Thank you, Chair.
The $1.5 billion was transferred—and this is the case for all of these trusts—by the federal government into a trust for the benefit of the provinces, and the provinces have to draw down the money over a certain period of time. Once the money is transferred into that trust, the federal government has no longer any control over that money. It essentially belongs to the provinces and they can draw it down as they wish.
It is an expense to the federal government. The government has given up the control over that money and has transferred it to the benefit of the provinces.