As you know, I've been before this committee several times over the last two and a half decades on this issue--in the mid-eighties when we tried to deal with this problem and again in the mid-nineties when we looked at it.
First of all, I think all members recognize that this is a very technically difficult area of the Income Tax Act, and trying to deal with abuses without throwing the baby out with the bathwater is just very difficult. We should deal with the abuses, but we have to be careful as we go.
I know that the department and the minister recognize this, and great effort will be taken to try to deal with it in drafting the legislation. The abuses are not something one can condone. On the other hand, as long as we don't deal with the issue of offshore tax havens globally--and they have to be dealt with globally, we can't deal with them individually in Canada--there will be a real problem in drafting the act. I'm sure the minister is aware of that.