Finance committee  That's correct. In those certain circumstances they would have an opportunity to utilize the program.

Finance committee  If I could, I'd like to call upon our chief economist and ask him to respond to the specific details, if that's okay.

Finance committee  That is correct.

Finance committee  It’s over 15 years.

Finance committee  That’s right.

Finance committee  Good morning and thank you, Mr. Chair. On behalf of our over 107,000 realtor members, I'd like to thank the committee for the invitation to appear today. Like MPs our members do work that connects them very closely to their respective communities. Similarly, our goal is to make communities across Canada better, safer, and stronger.

Finance committee  Based upon a survey of our members, I think it's a welcome program.

Finance committee  As far as I know, yes.

Finance committee  To the best of my knowledge, it's not something we've looked at. But certainly we would take your question under advisement, reflect on it, and we'd certainly be happy to get back to you.

Finance committee  Sure. We've certainly modified our proposal, and it was to recognize the fiscal circumstances that are present now. Our prior proposal dealing with capital gains in general...we recognized there was a bottom-line impact on that. As such, we narrowed it down to looking at the depreciation aspect to try to adapt and promote something that was going to be fiscally as neutral as possible.

Finance committee  Well, there are a couple of things. Certainly, there are a number of properties that we know are simply not being turned over, by virtue of that tax disincentive. So it's going to be and it is targeted to the small investor, not to the real estate developer, to provide a more equal playing field, a level playing field, that would treat the small investor in the same manner that a real estate developer is currently being treated.

Finance committee  I'd be interested to hear your response.

Finance committee  You were asking in terms of what...?

Finance committee  No.

Finance committee  I'll make two comments. In order to temper the marketplace and to ensure that consumers were acting in a prudent manner, I think it has had the desired effect. We've seen some slowdown in the overall activities, so it has had its desired effect. Certainly, in our projections for next year, we think it will be a very, very stable market, but we think it's important to maintain that stability and to not diminish the marketplace.