Health committee  I don't think we were clear on that point, but some of these exemptions also.... I think the committee has to know that once we start an analysis and go through the estimations, we may have to modify some of these things because some of them may not be possible to do in a credibl

Health committee  Okay.

Health committee  I'm not 100% sure, but I believe the Department of Health already has access to the data we are trying to purchase. My understanding is that they get—

Health committee  If we can stick to the terms of reference that we have, we can provide a framework and a cost for that framework. Now, from a policy perspective, the federal government and the provinces have to decide how they're going to implement that because, as you know, the provinces have t

Health committee  We normally prefer to cost programs that are already in place or have been proposed by the government. Only the elements of the policy are known at that point, so it would be much easier and more effective to cost a program like that. This is an idea, so the elements of it are no

Health committee  That's obviously up to the committee. It's whatever you decide.

Health committee  I suppose it depends on the committee's requirements. Typically, when we start a project, we go to work on it, finish it, and then report back to the committee or the member. In the meantime, if the committee required some updates on where we are and what the status of our analys

Finance committee  May I change places?

Finance committee  I don't consider myself a financial adviser for households. I don't know whether I would want to provide that kind of advice. On public policy, our job is to arrive at an impact of public policy on the overall fiscal situation in Canada, and that's what we have done with this re

Finance committee  Let me just clarify that. The study we did a while ago on climate change and the impact of a tax actually did not come directly from us. It came from the round table on the environment and the economy, and it was based on a hypothetical situation. Concerning the current announc

Finance committee  Only that we mentioned in the report that the CPP impact is already taken into account in our baseline projection.

Finance committee  I don't know whether we have a revenue problem or a spending problem, but we do the projection and the bottom line is whether there is a fiscal deficit or a fiscal surplus, and that's what really matters at the end. Do we have a revenue problem? I don't know. I don't think so.

Finance committee  I'm sorry, I didn't call it growth in the GDP. I was just talking about the amount relative to the GDP. I wasn't saying that this is going to increase growth in the GDP. I was just saying that this is equal to one-quarter of a per cent of the GDP.

Finance committee  Yes, of course. The situation for the provinces in terms of their debt and their future debt profile is still the same. That hasn't changed.

Finance committee  In terms of the measures that the federal government has done, no, I cannot name any right now that would help provinces to deal with their shortfall.