Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to all of the witnesses.
I would like to focus on the issue of the manner in which the government acted, and I direct my question first to Mr. Tait.
Let us take as a working hypothesis, as Monsieur Fortin said, that it was appropriate to take some action in view of the conversions of Telus, BCE, etc. The actions that the government actually took undoubtedly destroyed $25 billion of Canadians' savings—an average of perhaps $25,000 per Canadian holder of income trusts. It's arguable that the actions will also destroy the income trust sector in the longer term, thereby depriving the Canadian economy of some of the diversification benefits and improved access to financing that were mentioned by the Governor of the Bank of Canada.
Mr. Tait, given the premise that it was appropriate for some action to be taken, what other options could the government have taken, and would have been aware of, that did not have these two very negative effects I just mentioned?