Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  If I may, the Minister of Finance has already started discussions at the federal, provincial, and territorial levels on the need for a coordinated approach on cannabis taxation. Those discussions will likely continue at the upcoming meeting of finance ministers in December. For that reason, this amendment may not be necessary in terms of the process that has already started and that is taking place.

Finance committee  The authority allowing the payments to be made will be defined in the agreements, which may or may not include such conditions. That's part of the regime. The payment specifics appear in proposed new section 8.81 of Bill C-63.

Finance committee  I don't want to get into the details, but I must point out that, in the case of the tobacco tax, the government does not have coordinated tax agreements in place with the provinces and territories. Each is free to do as it pleases. In fact, Canada has 14 tobacco tax regimes, the federal regime, as well as those of the 10 provinces and three territories.

Finance committee  Very good. Thank you.

Finance committee  This is correct. The details and the excise duty framework itself will probably be announced by the government in the near future, but the amendments that are here are only able to allow the continuous negotiations with provinces.

Finance committee  My understanding is that it does. If it does not, we'll come back with some clarification.

Finance committee  Based on the Interpretation Act, usually in federal legislation, a reference to province includes territories. Again, my understanding is that it does apply to potential territorial arrangements. If it does not, we'll come back to the committee with a clarification because the intent of the government is to negotiate with territories as well.

Finance committee  We're leaving the purpose of the amendments here a little bit, but the amendments themselves do not define what could be part of the final—

Finance committee  In that sense, negotiations will follow, yes.

Finance committee  Thank you for your question, Mr. Fergus. That is correct. The list of powers that such an agreement may include appears on pages 233 and 234 of the bill. At this point, I can't confirm or deny the position that the government will take in the negotiations. This involves the framework.

Finance committee  Thank you for the question. If you look at previous agreements, in the case of harmonized sales tax, for example, you will see that the rates can vary slightly from one province to another. I'm not an expert on the HST, but I believe that it's 8% in Ontario, and around 9% or 10% in Prince Edward Island, so slight variations are possible.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm here to speak to two measures in Bill C-63, Budget Implementation Act, 2017, No. 2. The first measure I'll be describing is in part 3 and has to do with the taxing of beer. The measure is dealt with in clauses 165 to 168, which amend the Excise Act so that beer made from beer concentrate for consumption on the premises is taxed in a manner that is consistent with other beer products.

Finance committee  That's correct, yes.

Finance committee  That's exactly right. They are new products entering the market. They are not already on the market.