Thank you for the explanation, Mr. Elkin. That makes it a little more clear. But it doesn’t help me with my concern.
We’re dealing with prior-year funding deficits or overspending — whatever you want to call it. To me that indicates these particular hospitals are not receiving enough money in funding. If it’s $1.6 million we gave them in a one-time grant, or whatever you want to call it, to cover their prior years’ expenses, they still have that expense on their books. They are still going to have it this year. It is still, to me, in effect, a cut. Again, I just have to express my concern that we’re putting these hospitals and these health centres into a situation where they can’t possibly win.
I appreciate that Stanton, for instance, is undergoing a review, but I think our premise is incorrect and we’re not giving them enough funding at the beginning of the year. We are going to put them.... Even if we take the eraser, as Mr. Ramsay says, and wipe off the current accumulated deficit, we are putting them in a situation where they’re not going to be able to succeed; we are going to put them back into a deficit at the end of this ’08–09
year. There’s no question there. I just wanted to make that comment.