Finance committee  I'm not sure about the deduction part.

Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  The last year the Canada health transfer will be legislated is 2013-14.

Finance committee  I presume you're talking about a recent measure that was announced in the Quebec budget.

Finance committee  I'm sort of sensing there are several questions here, so let me try to answer them one at a time. On what you're talking about in the Quebec budget, it is simply a proposal. We don't have the final details on it. My understanding is that people at Health Canada are studying the

Finance committee  Hydro-Québec is a crown corporation that's engaged in the generation of hydroelectricity. Hydro One in Ontario is primarily engaged in transmission and distribution. The policy in equalization is that you take the remitted profits in their entirety of any crown corporation engag

Finance committee  The policy is that you take all of the remitted profits of any crown corporation engaged in hydroelectricity production. The reason for that is the following, and I'll step back a bit here. The expert panel on equalization recommended that the revenues from natural resources be t

Finance committee  Equalization is a federal program.

Finance committee  It's my understanding that there's never been an agreement, so to say, between provinces and the federal government vis-à-vis equalization. Equalization is a federal program and it's paid out under federal legislation. Provinces, from time to time—

Finance committee  It is.

Finance committee  The actual program is laid out in federal legislation, and from time to time provinces have disagreed with the various treatments that have happened within the program. We consult with the provinces and listen to what they have to say, but at the end of the day, it's the federal

Finance committee  That's correct.

Finance committee  Let me first correct one thing. The payment that's being made is not to protect against declines in equalization; it's a payment to make sure that the total amount of major transfers a province is receiving in 2010-11 is no lower than it was in 2009-10. For provinces who receive

Finance committee  Let me first confirm that the payments you are talking about from Quebec, the loan that was given to Quebec, is interest-free. It is a loan that was put in place, from my understanding--and I did not work in the division at the time--because of a significant adjustment that was m

Finance committee  I don't have the precise details, but my assumption would be that it is just simply deducted equally across the year from all the payments that are being made to Quebec, but I don't have the exact specifics.