International Trade committee  I wholeheartedly agree with that. That was one of the suggestions I made in some of the discussions I've had. This housing crisis is a fairly new thing, but these people have owned these places for decades. They didn't cause this housing problem. It's not them, so why are we attacking them?

International Trade committee  I'm not aware of any consultations. I've not participated in any yet. The only ones I've had were when I've called somebody else.

International Trade committee  No, I wasn't. No.

International Trade committee  I'd be more than happy to work with this committee. I've spent a lot of time on this. I've talked to many people at CRA, right to the top. I do tax work. I think I know what the government's trying to do. Again, there's a noble cause to this act, and I support it. It's just that the implementation has created this collateral damage that doesn't need to happen.

International Trade committee  You're asking for confidential information. I'm only kidding. How many clients do I have? I have hundreds. What is their length of stay? Many are from May 24 to Labour Day. They're here all summer. They come with their families. They come with their kids. They come with their grandparents.

International Trade committee  I have not received any response.

International Trade committee  Definitely. Again, it's not that they want it. You're going to be hearing from Congressman Higgins this afternoon. I think he's on your agenda. I'm sure he's going to talk to you about that, because he has tabled that in Congress. He has tabled that at numerous meetings in New York state, where he's a congressman, particularly in the Buffalo area.

International Trade committee  I'd be happy to answer that question. We have a different situation. First of all, we have a variety of homes from the very low bottom of a little.... I don't want to say “shack” but a very small place to a bigger place. There's no question. We have everything in between, but the ones that are owned by the American people are summer residences.

International Trade committee  In fact, I drafted that for the Deputy Prime Minister, so I will make sure you get that. It's very simple, and it gets around that issue right within the regulation that's already there.

International Trade committee  I don't know of anybody who was consulted. I know I wasn't—not that I have to be—but I'm saying I'm not aware of any of that consultation process.

International Trade committee  My first discussion was back in March of last year.

International Trade committee  I got to meet Mr. Baldinelli this summer. We had such a public outcry in our area from these cottage owners wanting to get information. Of course, everyone was directed to the helpline. The helpline can be helpful for some things, but not many things. People are on the phone—including me—for two hours or more before we get to talk to anybody, and then we're talking to a low-level worker.

International Trade committee  I don't have any data on how many would be in the rural area as opposed to the urban area. I don't have that. I do the filings for all of my American clients on this UHT, so I've been actually on the ground with this. I can tell you from my experience that there are countless within the urban area that are affected by this.

International Trade committee  That's a very good question. I've worked a lot with CRA over the past number of months to try to get answers to how they're going to interpret these exemptions, because the tax return is complicated and you have to check out boxes. I've talked to some very good people at CRA. Basically I'm told that the policies will be developed as we go along, which makes it difficult for an adviser to tell somebody what to say or not to say on these forms.

International Trade committee  No, there isn't a mechanism. I don't know whether they're going to check.... When people cross at the border, is Canada border security going to provide that data? Basically, the return itself doesn't require any proof. It just asks, “Do you agree that you've been here 28 days?”