Finance committee  The $16 billion is based on the formula that was in place prior to measures that were announced last November and implemented in the budget--

Finance committee  No. It's actually the reverse.

Finance committee  If nothing had happened, we would have been at $16 billion. Because of the measures put in place in the budget implementation bill, we are at just over $14 billion for 2009-10. That amount will grow in line with the three-year average of nominal GDP.

Finance committee  Yes. The main components include the CST, for which an escalator of 3% was set in budget 2007, and the largest transfer, which is the Canada health transfer. As part of the 10-year 2004-05 agreement to strengthen health care, the cash component of that transfer is growing by 6%

Finance committee  The measures that were put on place in the budget implementation bill have set the equalization program on a sustainable growth path. Basically, it's the three-year average of nominal GDP growth. In 2009-10, I think it's roughly 4.1% or 4.2% growth. It will move in line with that

Finance committee  Yes. The actual amount will be about $14 billion once the measures in the budget implementation bill are reflected in the amounts. The amount in the budget itself reflects the measures that were in the budget implementation bill.

Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  Provinces receive equal support from the Canada health transfer through a mix of tax points that were transferred in 1977 and the cash transfer. The cash transfer is increasing at 6% a year. The government announced in budget 2007 that the Canada health transfer would move to an

Finance committee  The total support is the same for all provinces, but the share that comes from cash for Alberta is lower because the value of its tax points is higher.

Finance committee  I am Alfred LeBlanc, from the Federal-Provincial Relations and Social Policy Branch.

Finance committee  These offset arrangements are long-standing agreements, the origins of which, in some cases, go back to the late sixties, early seventies. This agreement attempts to work out a framework for offshore oil and gas development and who would benefit from offshore oil and gas develo

Finance committee  Yes. November 20, 2012.

Finance committee  That's a very rough kind of equivalence.

Finance committee  All other things equal, more or less you're.... Yes.

Finance committee  I don't have that information with me, but I could get it. Would that be okay?