Mr. Chairman, yes, we are on the current formula very much linked to the economic picture in the rest of Canada. I too believe that is not a good way of funding our needs in the North. I have made that point many times in various federal-provincial meetings, that we are on a non-renewable resource development wave that the rest of Canada is not. The rest of Canada is more on the manufacturing and high tech industry. That is what drives their economy.

Ours is a different economy and the current formula does not reflect that. It puzzles me why -- let us say the auto industry in Ontario or the high tech industry in Quebec, or wherever it may be, or the oil and gas industry even in Alberta -- why it has such a big impact on it.

However, under the current formula it does and I assume the thinking was that all economies in Canada moved along at the same pace. I think we have a different economy and ours is only slowed down to the effect that the federal government forces it to slow down through reduced transfer payments. That is becoming less and less of a factor as we become more dependent on mining, diamonds in particular, and later on oil and gas.

I am meeting with Minister Martin on Sunday and I hope to get some feedback from him of how he is responding to the potential recession and what his reaction is to the increased need for spending on security. He is putting forward a budget in December so I do not expect we will get all the answers on Sunday. That is one meeting. We will get some hints. Certainly by December we will get a pretty good idea of how Canada is responding to the current economic climate and then be able to do a more accurate assessment of the impact on our government's fiscal framework. So by the time we do our main estimates in February, we should be able to provide much more clarity to that question. Thank you.