Finance committee  Our understanding is that the specific transfer is a change related to responsibilities and issues related to machinery of government.

Finance committee  I can't speak to the specific initiative in this case.

Finance committee  We can get a more formal response to the committee, absolutely.

Finance committee  I don't have it immediately on the tip of my tongue. It was reported in the 2007 budget. The cost of this program will rise over time as uptake increases. My recollection is that it's in the neighbourhood of $2 billion a year at maturity. Brian, I'll let you comment more specific

Finance committee  We'll get back to you by the end of the meeting on that.

Finance committee  I'm Paul Rochon, senior assistant deputy minister, economic and fiscal policy.

Government Operations committee  The fiscal year that we just started, 2009-10, started in April. There may be some funds that are reprofiled from 2008-09 into future years to the extent that those are associated, for example, with infrastructure programs that the government has committed to keeping whole. As

Government Operations committee  Maybe I could respond to that. There was an accountability framework included in the budget that was tabled on January 27 that involved regular reports to Canadians on amounts spent. That's set out in the budget. It's also important to realize that this implementation is happen

Government Operations committee  Yes. Canada Health Infoway is an organization that has representatives from all provincial governments and the federal government. It has its own board of directors and it administers the funds independently.

Government Operations committee  That is something we will have over the course of this year. For the purposes of the numbers that were presented in the budget, we have included, as an assumption, an estimate that these funds would be disbursed over the next three years. This would be an expense that would be ve

Government Operations committee  Let me start with Health Infoway. As you know, it is an organization that's been in existence for a number of years. It does important work related to electronic health records in particular. My understanding is that these funds will flow over three years and will be managed by I

Government Operations committee  The goal of the moneys in the budget is to ensure that at least 50% of Canadians have electronic health records by 2010. I guess the Department of Health could provide you more information on what that means, if you want to get into greater detail.

Government Operations committee  Yes, that's correct.

Government Operations committee  In general terms, it's quite safe to say that the fiscal strength of the federal government in Canada, as well as that of most other provincial governments, is an outstanding feature of this country. That is important in a whole variety of ways, including keeping interest rates t

Government Operations committee  Yes, I think one could safely conclude that, and I think the permanent nature of the tax cuts that have been put in place, by and large, in Canada is also important in that it allows corporations and households to know they can plan on those tax cuts for the future. And that's