Finance committee  Well, society actually would be better served, at the point we're at, if more people were renters, because renters, when they become unemployed, will look for a job wherever there's a job and then will move to take it. Homeowners look for a job within commuting distance of their house, and they'll stay unemployed.

Finance committee  That's what we're saying should have been possible to do, but it was not in the program design. If you were a homeowner, you could spend your $10,000 and get $1,350 back, off your taxes. However, a landlord could not do that, so—

Finance committee  Let me try to explain what has been said. When one looks at a renter, it's clear you have income from outside and then you pay out rent, and that's a living expense. With a homeowner the situation is a little bit different. A homeowner has cash income and then, by virtue of owning their home they receive non-cash income, which is the money they don't have to pay out for the rent of their home.

Finance committee  The question, as I understand it, is how can we get all these benefits from a session that only costs $450 million--and as a deferral at that? The answer is that people are operating at the margin. In other words, there's a decision on whether to sell or not. When they sell, someone else buys the property, comes with new eyes to the property, and decides to improve it.

Finance committee  If I understand the question, the point is that the current tax system advantages the person who buys. There are some advantages to that. We have a very high home ownership rate. Among businesses, if someone owns their premises there may be some advantages to that in terms of their connection to the community.

Finance committee  Good morning. My name is John Dickie. The CFAA represents the owners and managers of close to one million rental homes across Canada through seventeen local and provincial associations. One of our members is the Saskatchewan Rental Housing Industry Association, which you'll hear from shortly, but they are an independent entity and are located, as the name indicates, in the west, whereas our head office is here in Ottawa and my personal experience is in Ontario and Quebec, where I've spent my life.

Finance committee  Absolutely, it should be extended to renters. I would say that the mechanism should extend it to the rental owners, because they will be the ones putting in the money to do the renovations, which then benefit the renters. The renters will have improved rental accommodation, which tends overall—albeit in a marginal way—to reduce the cost of rental accommodation in the marketplace.

Finance committee  Good morning. The CFAA represents the owners and managers of close to one million private rental homes across Canada. The need for the reforms we propose arises from the current divergence in the tax treatment of homeowners from the tax treatment of renters. Some of the policies that lead to that are set out on page 2 of our brief.