Based on the federal decision announced in the 1995 budget of the Minister of Finance, it was initially anticipated that, by the year 2003, federal transfers to the provinces for health, higher education and social assistance would be subject to cumulative cuts totalling $48 billion.
Over 8 years, the cuts would be estimated at forty eight billion dollars 
( z1 estimate :ARG1 ( z2 cut ) :ARG2 ( z3 monetary-quantity :quant 400000000000 :unit ( z4 dollar ) ) :duration ( z5 over :op ( z6 temporal-quantity :quant 8 :unit ( z7 year ) ) ) )