Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his question which allows me to state that we collect the vast majority of accounts receivable with interest.
Of course there will always be some area of bad debts. Last year it was less than one-half of 1 per cent of gross revenue. This year, we are budgeting slightly more than that, but still well below 1 per cent.
It is very important to note that we collect the accounts receivable. They are taken into account by the Minister of Finance in his budgetary projections. There is no pot of money out there not being collected which could be used to reduce the deficit. All the moneys in accounts receivable have been taken into account.