Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would simply add that you have to be careful with the numbers, and perhaps we should explain them better. In Chrysler's case, for instance, the initial loan was $2.9 billion. Chrysler repaid $2.1 billion of that. Over time, however, with the prevailing i

Public Accounts committee  Of course.

Finance committee  I think the ultimate outcome is entirely dependent upon the design of the tax and the rebate that is provided to households from the proceeds of the tax, but it's design-specific.

Finance committee  As you know, we receive requests for access to information and there is a piece of legislation, the Access to Information Act. We apply the rules of the Access to Information Act when we get those requests, and we treated that document consistent with those rules.

Finance committee  That's correct.

Finance committee  Actually, I think, if you look at the act and the Security of Information Act, they're quite clear that we are to release information under certain circumstances and not under others.

Finance committee  No, no. I'm just saying we administer the act according to the legislation of Canada. Of course, if Parliament wants to change the legislation, that's always within the prerogative of Parliament.

Finance committee  I think they do.

Finance committee  I'm happy to do so. The objective is to have in the main estimates as many budget measures, and potentially all, that should be in the main estimates this year. The process we will use is essentially to delay the main estimates by approximately a month. In budget implementation

Finance committee  The amounts will be spent over 10 years. Those transfers will basically go to the provinces and territories, within a framework that the Minister of Health will negotiate with them. I understand that discussions are well under way and we expect the money to be spent over the year

Finance committee  Yes, that even includes the current year.

Finance committee  As far as first nations are concerned, the amounts are for negotiations on the tax agreements and the revenue transfers that we carry out under those agreements. There is a whole process, and a number of first nations and departmental officials are involved in it.

Finance committee  I think so, yes.

Finance committee  It started a few months ago.

Public Accounts committee  Yes, what Mr. Matthews said is accurate. You'll recall that departments can automatically carry forward roughly 5% of their operating budget, and not always but in most cases, they carry forward something similar to that. Each year when we do the budget forecast, we do an estimat