What my colleague is doing is looking at one aspect of the budget in isolation, and I think he's aware that if this amendment were passed it would throw the whole budget out of whack, because it would add a tax measure into the budget that would cost several billion dollars. Of course, this is not allowed for in the budget. The government has a budget plan; it has a tax relief plan, which is substantial but is not tied to this one measure—it includes a number of measures.
I would simply point out to the committee that were this amendment to pass, the whole budget would be completely undermined, because its coherence depends on the measures staying as they are. It would be somewhat irresponsible for this committee to add an additional tax liability to the budget plan of several billion dollars, for which obviously there are not the funds, and Canadians would be ill-served by such a substantial amendment at this stage of the game.