Finance committee  Sure. Thank you very much. I'll start with a few comments, and maybe Mr. Heldman will join in. The disadvantaging basically comes from the fact that pooled funds, as we mentioned, are lesser known. People know about mutual funds. They know about defined benefit pension plans. P

Finance committee  In summary, we believe that it's in the government's best interest to enact measures that strengthen, not weaken, the competitiveness and fair tax treatment of pooled funds, to ensure the adequacy of Canadians' retirement savings. Thank you. We look forward to your questions.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good morning. PMAC is very pleased to offer our recommendations today on behalf of our 270 investment firm members, who collectively manage over $1.8 trillion in assets for pension plans, foundations, endowments, and individual and group RRSPs across Canad

Finance committee  We have sent a note directly to the Department of Finance on this matter, but there's a specific section in the Income Tax Act that covered the merger of segregated insurance product funds and mutual funds. We're just asking that it cover pooled funds also.

Finance committee  Sure. I'm happy to do that. Thank you.

Finance committee  Yes. I'm not sure of the percentage, but we know that group RRSPs and defined contribution plans are typically invested in pooled funds, and that's $65 billion, whereas mutual funds are the ones that are typically accessed by the general public, not through the employer-sponsored

Finance committee  We thank the committee for the opportunity to present and welcome questions.

Finance committee  Mr. Chair, thank you very much for the opportunity to present today. The Portfolio Management Association of Canada represents over 240 investment management firms from across Canada that collectively manage over $1.6 trillion for Canadians, much of which is pension plans and gr

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Katie Walmsley. I am the president of the Portfolio Management Association of Canada. I also have joining with me today in the audience Mr. Paul Harris, who is chair of PMAC's board of directors and managing partner of A

Finance committee  That's a tricky question, because I think the answer would vary by industry. If there were specific industries in which the government saw that there were more cash reserves and that investment wasn't happening, there might be some industry-specific opportunities to look at. A

Finance committee  That's certainly an option. Right now, if we are negotiating trade with a country where their exchange is not on our list, Canadians cannot invest their RRSPs in an equity that's on a foreign exchange in that country.

Finance committee  That's a good question. We've explored other countries to see whether a similar list exists. To our knowledge, we're not aware whether, in the U.S., for example, there is a similar list of specific exchanges. I believe it would be an option to eliminate the list, because there i

Finance committee  We're not necessarily recommending full exemption; we're suggesting potentially turning the clock back to at least July 1, 2010, and looking at GST only. That would eliminate the additional tax in all the harmonized provinces. The issue really comes down to this: the government

Finance committee  That's an excellent question. We've been exploring this issue with the Department of Finance, both the background and options to keep the list up to date. I'm not clear on the history of the list. What I am aware of is that the process today to add exchanges to the list is very

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. We are pleased to have the opportunity to make a presentation to the committee today. My name is Katie Walmsley and I am the president of the Portfolio Management Association of Canada, formerly known by the acronym ICAC. I am accompanied today by Scott Ma