Bill S-4 (Historical)

Tax Convention and Arrangement Implementation Act, 2016

An Act to implement a Convention and an Arrangement for the avoidance of double taxation and the prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income and to amend an Act in respect of a similar Agreement

This enactment implements a convention between the Government of Canada and the Government of the State of Israel for the avoidance of double taxation and the prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income and an arrangement between the Canadian Trade Office in Taipei and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Canada for the avoidance of double taxation and the prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income. It also amends the Canada–Hong Kong Tax Agreement Act, 2013 to add to it, for greater certainty, an interpretation provision.
The convention and arrangement are generally patterned on the Model Tax Convention on Income and on Capital developed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
The convention and arrangement have two main objectives: the avoidance of double taxation and the prevention of fiscal evasion. Once implemented, they will provide relief from taxation rules in, or related to, the Income Tax Act. Their implementation requires the enactment of this Act.

[John Cartwright]

I see this as a process that we're involved in now. We're taking our first step with Bill C-227 to start to set the stage for an expectation of community benefits, and these will be different in different regions and in different communities. Eventually, we should put into regulation what those community benefits would include, such as apprenticeship numbers and outreach to diverse communities where we've looked at other considerations. I think those could be put in regulation as we move forward, and then at some point as we've tested this, and as we've seen the areas of strength and weakness as it roles out, then perhaps it would be time to come back to create an infrastructure that has the benefit of real life experience.