Finance committee  Absolutely. No question.

Finance committee  I think the knee-jerk response would be to reduce tax rates, both corporate and personal, especially personal. Having said that, I think the more thorough and better response is what this committee has probably heard dozens and dozens of times, which is comprehensive tax review.

Finance committee  You know what? I'm going in with an open mind. I would want to go in with an open mind. Everything is on the table.

Finance committee  I would suggest that there is a disincentive to take risk, but is there a disincentive to stay home and not work? Probably not. But is there a disincentive to take risk? Yes. I would add to your commentary. Do I think there's a war on the wealthy in Canada right now? Absolutely.

Finance committee  Can I respond?

Finance committee  First of all, don't put words in my mouth. I never said “favourably” to France. I'm just pointing out that there are many countries around the world, and I focused on France because it's recent. Do I think that those examples that you've listed are exhaustive? Not in the least, and you would have that from a quick search on Google.

Finance committee  And the bottom line is that our industry—

Finance committee  All I was about to say, before I was interrupted, was we should be looking at a much more systemic review of what the root causes are, and I explained what I think the root causes are: the Internet giants sucking away advertising revenues. Instead of a knee-jerk response to these so-called incentives, we should be looking at something much more thorough.

Finance committee  Well, on the first pillar that I mentioned, individuals leaving Canada, you would be looking at deemed dispositions as they leave Canada. I've tried to get that information from the CRA, and the information that has come back has been rather lacking, you could say. Whatever information you'll get out of that pillar will not display the planning that goes on behind the scenes.

Finance committee  Without a doubt. If any of you have studied basic economics, which I presume lots of you have, I think the Laffer curve is very real. When you look at the amount of personal tax that ultimately is imposed, there's a tipping point as to when that behavioural change.... In terms of the use of the phrase by Ms.

Finance committee  If I understand the question correctly, I'll just paraphrase it in English: Do I think that Quebec and Canada have been harmed by Internet sales that ultimately have not been subject to both federal and provincial tax? Is that a fair summary? I would suggest the answer is yes. Again, this is a very difficult issue that the OECD has spent a lot of time looking at and it has released some reports on this issue, but I would suggest that implementing that is much easier said than done.

Finance committee  Better is subjective, right? Do I see other countries taking action? Yes, and in my opening remarks I gave one example, which is a recent proposal that France has come up with, which is to tax the French revenues of Google, Amazon, Facebook and all these Internet giants. Do I think that's a step in the right direction?

Finance committee  Sure.

Finance committee  I think I'll answer that question from two different angles. First of all, recognize that our firm deals exclusively with private clients, so we're not dealing with the headline grabbers of all the large oil and gas companies that are fleeing, for example, the oil sands. That's just not our firm.

Finance committee  I think there are a whole bunch of effects. When wealthy individuals leave Canada, especially if they're job creators, the worst-case scenario is those jobs leave or just end. In many cases, the brains behind the operation are gone and that taxation on the investment income is gone as well.