Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I too have concerns with regard to exactly where we are going in the next two years, realizing the economic uncertainty that we are in with what happened in the United States and what is happening in the different sectors of the Canadian economy, such as the auto industry, the high tech and the major layoffs in a lot of the provinces. It does have an affect on the bottom line and as a government, where are we going to go?
I think we have to realize that we are not immune to that. I think sometimes, because of distance, we think we are but my experience with the 13th Assembly, it was this specific type of activity that decreased the amount of revenues that we received from Ottawa. I think we have to keep that in mind, not knowing what the amounts are going to be with the new fiscal arrangement for expenditures we are going to see next year because of that uncertainty.
I would like to ask the Minister, do we have an idea of what the amount of the transfer payments we will receive next year will be in regard to covering the expenditures of this government?