Mr. Coulombe and Mr. Bélanger, thank you for being here with us.
You talked about the money shortage that affects municipalities. I have had an opportunity, myself, to look into how municipalities' revenues have grown over the last decade. I have determined that they rose by 71% between 2001 and 2011. Taking both population and inflation into account, we are talking about a 30% increase. That means that in ten years, revenue has risen twice as fast as needs. That trend began well before 2001. Even in the 1990s, revenue rose faster than inflation and population growth combined. That is why I have trouble understanding why the municipalities can still have shortages. Perhaps you can explain it for me.