Mr. Speaker, I enjoyed serving with my friend from Charlottetown on that committee. We talked quite a bit about the Last Post Fund. I am glad his colleague from Guelph is here in the House today.
This is the way budgeting works. We have to set aside revenue that we forecast will be used. It is not exactly about using everything up in the timeframe. It is about that estimate or that allocation.
When it comes to the Last Post Fund, this is a fund Canadians should understand exists only for veterans who fall through the cracks. They have an estate of $12,000 or less, not including their house or car. It is a small subset of Canadians. It is a fair amount. It was an amount the Liberal government set, actually.
Forecasting how many veterans will fall into those narrow parameters is very difficult. On an accrual accounting basis, once a statutory benefit has been created, enough funds have to be set aside to meet the anticipated demand. It is the same thing for the estimates. We look at the statutory entitlement and then the budgetary entitlement and estimate our spending for the year.
I think members opposite actually know this, but they prefer to play games rather than talk about the facts.