When more cash is less cash

"Ottawa, provinces sign bilingual education deal" trumpets the Winnipeg Free Press. OK, maybe trumpets is a bit hyperbolic. What do you think about piccolo as a verb?

Anyhow, "The federal and provincial governments signed a new four-year minority-language education agreement worth more than $1 billion." This is a 1.5% increase over the previous deal. In other words, it's less than half a percent a year, well below the cost of inflation. I suppose they could have cut funds outright...