Finance committee  The taxation of financial services is complicated. In the Excise Tax Act there are certain financial services that are exempt. The interpretation of that has actually changed in the last year and a half. There was a court case in April of 2009 that reversed the treatment of taxat

Finance committee  Barb, do you want to talk to that?

Finance committee  You may ask why there has not been a public outcry. For the majority of Canadians, the taxes are hidden. They are hidden in mutual fund statements, they are hidden in pension plan communications, they are not visible. The time will come, however, when they are aware--15 to 20 yea

Finance committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. We are pleased to have the opportunity to appear before the committee today. My name is Katie Walmsley. I am president of the Investment Counsel Association of Canada. I am accompanied by Barb Lockhart, who is senior vice-president for finance an

Finance committee  I'll talk specifically about the way the system works right now and then ideally how it would work under a single regulator. Right now the banks in Canada are getting a fair bit of recognition internationally, and our regulatory system—

Finance committee  The banks, I believe, have done well in Canada because there has been one regulator. Right now, for securities regulation in Canada, we have 13 regulators. The passport you referred to provided a somewhat improved registration process, and simplification. However, one of the ke

Finance committee  Yes, I do. The company is the member of our association, not individuals. We're not a professional association like the CSA. We represent the companies. The companies join, and we support them by providing education to their members.

Finance committee  The firm is our member.

Finance committee  We estimate, in terms of the firms that are registered with the securities commissions as investment counsel portfolio managers. We represent roughly 50% of them.

Finance committee  And many firms are—

Finance committee  No, they are not. They are volunteers, and we are not a regulatory body.

Finance committee  I believe in my opening remarks I complimented the government on taking some first steps toward stimulus and helping to stabilize the economy, but our comments in our submissions on a single regulator acknowledge that right now there is a hodgepodge of regulations in Canada that

Finance committee  Let me interject one comment on that. You're seeing in the newspapers all these funds consolidating. This is one of the reasons they're doing it: they're getting too small; they're dropping below it, and investors are paying tax. On their statements, that tax is not transparent.

Finance committee  Our association specifically does not. Mr. Johnston may wish to add.

Finance committee  Yes, we did, and to each of the provincial expert panels we gave the same copy of our recommendations.