Health committee  The conditionalities surrounding trust funds are in terms of eligibility. So I think it was mentioned that there are operating principles, and operating principles outline the rationale for providing the funding and they give some broad examples of how the funding should be used.

Health committee  No.

Health committee  Let me start with a general comment on transfers. At the Department of Finance we are responsible for four major transfers. Two of those are unconditional transfers—and they're in support of health, of course, depending on provincial and territorial priorities. There's equalization, which is an unconditional transfer that exists to ensure that provinces can offer comparable levels of services at comparable levels of taxation.

Health committee  What I would add is that under the Canada health transfer in 2009, we are providing about $24 billion in cash support to provinces and territories. The transfer stands from the 2004 accord, as you're probably aware, and it provides growing, predictable support to the provinces and territories in support of their health care needs.