Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon, Mr. O'Connor and Mr. Dinis.
I would like to take advantage of your presence here today to remind you that we talk about your agency a lot in our constituency offices. In fact, a number of constituents, entrepreneurs and investors have had dealings with the Canada Revenue Agency. I wanted to talk to you about the issue of fairness in tax collection. You must certainly be dealing with this since it is you who enforce various government laws.
Please refer to page 388 of the budget in the section on employee stock options. Surely, you must be aware of the situation of people who get an exemption for half of their profit when they buy and resell stock options. In the media this week, we saw the example of bank presidents, in particular Mr. Edmund Clark, President of TD Bank, who made $25.5 million, half of which is tax free. Surely, you are familiar with all that. These examples make us see tax collection in a negative light and show that many people can bend the law when it comes to their own income.
On page 388, a table shows the total amounts of stock option deductions. They amount to $4 billion. In the budget, they took the trouble to say this:
Given the considerable tax benefits provided by the stock option deduction, particularly to high-income individuals, it is important to ensure that it is used in a manner consistent with its intended policy objectives.
Given that you are senior officials at the Canada Revenue Agency, could you tell me what that section implies? Are you closely monitoring how these privileges are applied? And since you are certainly being asked to reflect on the matter, would you not recommend possibly reducing or eliminating these tax deductions as part of a government policy?