Government Operations committee  —whether we evaluate, whether we think that's at the right level, whether we should go forward. A couple of years ago, for example, we had five-year funding for our aboriginal promotion and prevention programs. It was very important work, but it came to the end of five years, and we evaluated.

Government Operations committee  Yes. As I mentioned in answer to the previous question, Mr. Chair, we do believe that there will be better reporting to parliamentarians in the new method, but as we transfer from one to the other it is a difficult comparison to make this year. It is absolutely the case that it's not a 400-and-some per cent increase; it is just a movement from one reporting system to align to the new PAA.

Government Operations committee  No, in the first nations situation, this is a realignment within Health Canada.

Government Operations committee  If you do a comparison of main estimates to main estimates, there are two areas in the department. You will see that the Department of Health is down by $75 million overall. Most of that is in the regulatory area because of the money that was subsequently announced and renewed in the budget.

Government Operations committee  Some of it is in the first nations area. Again, these are demand-driven programs. There's no change to the program, but the estimate and the final sense of how much we will put forward and expect to spend on those programs in 2011-12 will be coming forward in the supplementary estimates in the fall.

Government Operations committee  I don't have that figure at my fingertips. What I do recall for 2010-11 is that, as I mentioned, we had a number of programs that sunsetted, Mr. Chair, in that year. So again, some of those moneys came forward in the supplementary estimates. I have this year's mains in front of me, but I don't have last year's supplementaries.

Government Operations committee  The answer is that it doesn't go into our base. It is something that we can use one time.

Government Operations committee  It's something, for example, that we can use.... I'm just looking here: I have the 2009-10 number, and in vote 1 we carried over $48 million--

Government Operations committee  --and some additional in some of the other votes.

Government Operations committee  Thank you very much for the question. We did try to work to carry forward money last year. This year, we had some projects and some investments we wanted to make, and we think we were very fiscally responsible last year, so we've carried over an amount. I'm not sure of the precise number at the fiscal year-end.

Government Operations committee  Thank you for the important question on the topic of sodium. We've had a working group, as members may be aware, that did some work and presented governments, essentially, with a report. As the minister noted, this was considered at the FPT ministers of health meeting last September.

Government Operations committee  Yes. This is for the Department of Health?

Government Operations committee  Again, thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm happy to respond to the question. What we have here is the end of a number of programs that were sunsetted and reviewed periodically. So we had, for example, the chemicals management plan and the clean air agenda. At the time of these main estimates, those programs were sunsetted, thoroughly evaluated, and reviewed.

Government Operations committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I'm very happy to speak to this important issue. I think there are two issues: one is the amount of money, and the second is how it's displayed and shown in the estimates. I'll start with the first question on the amount of money. The biggest change you will see in the estimates is because of the non-insured health benefits.

Government Operations committee  Certainly. Thank you again for the important question. The Patented Medicine Prices Review Board works to try to establish a pricing regime and a regulatory overview for Canada. They do have a series of countries that they look at as comparators for determining whether the prices for patented medicines are fair in the Canadian context.