Thank you very much for being here today.
My first questions are for Mr. Bradley.
You have made several recommendations, particularly on the accelerated rate of depreciation of electric equipment. Depreciation issues in general are taxation matters that are very often raised in this committee, mainly to recommend an accelerated rate. Generally, we try to take account of the objective useful life of the equipment. Sometimes, we will recommend an accelerated rate specifically to encourage investment in a given type of equipment. It is a useful step because it provides cash flow to companies and does not cost much to the government because it consists of deferring some taxes to allow corporations to accelerate some investment.
Your third recommendation relates to smart meters and advanced metering infrastructure for which you want the rate of depreciation to be raised from 8% to 45% which, I believe, is a huge difference. You say that this is required to stimulate energy conservation among consumers.
I would like you to explain how this type of equipment would really allow consumers to save energy.