Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for the question because it gives me the opportunity to clear up one of the more serious misunderstandings.
Let me just say that under the present formula, under the existing arrangements, the cash portion of the transfer of post-secondary education is declining every year. It is going down. It is ratcheting down further over a period of time.
The reason is that the revenue is going to the provinces because tax points are going up. The provinces are getting more money each year. As a result that cash portion goes down accordingly by the ratio under the existing arrangements.
We are trying to say that before that ratcheting takes place, before that reduction causes the cash flow to disappear, let us take the money we have and work together to set up a brand new program of social assistance that will provide a much broader range of real support for students to go back to school, broader accessibility not only for 18-year-olds or 21-year-olds but for all Canadians who want to go back to school.
This is the whole idea of very important creative federalism and of finding ways of using the money we now have to turn it into three or four billion additional dollars going back into the educational system.