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. 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  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  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

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

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  This is a comparison between the 2008-09 and 2009-10 main estimates, right? They were the main estimates presented in February 2008. This represents changes between February 2008 and February 2009.

Finance committee  Yes, it's $2 billion, because market interest rates over that period declined.

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  One must remember that in January, when the budget was tabled, the government decided to rely on forecasts that were far and way lower than the average of private sector forecasts. It is clear that despite this adjustment, economic risks were worsening. In that context, one can s

Finance committee  I do not think so. In fact, the OECD has published its own figures, based on data different from ours, that indicate that Canada has one of the most significant economic plans in the world.