Thank you, Mr. Chairperson.
Pardon me if any of this is repetitive; I'm sorry, but I had to leave for a short period of time. Somehow I doubt that my questions will have been asked already.
I saw yesterday's announcement as quite a shift away from the budget. The budget actually states that
Canada’s New Government has chosen to act, to ensure that everyone pays their fair share of tax. Budget 2007 proposes that interest expense on indebtedness incurred to acquire the shares of a foreign affiliate no longer be deductible, unless and until the shares generate income that Canada actually taxes.
It seems to me that except for double-dipping—and we're not quite sure how that will work now—there's been a complete restoration of interest tax deductibility on foreign investments. So I'm assuming that's the case and I'm asking you what will we do now? Businesses said this was going to cost them a billion dollars if the government had proceeded. Now that the government's backtracked, who's going to pick up the billion dollars? How do we make up for this lost revenue that was going to come from the government finally closing this corporate tax loophole?
You maybe can't answer that, but—