Evidence of meeting #20 for Finance in the 39th Parliament, 2nd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was study.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Bloc
Paul Crête Bloc Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC
Lastly, tax mechanisms designed to counteract the disparity in growth between east and west.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Merrifield
Three in favour, the rest opposed.
Okay, we're going back to the main motion. All in favour?
Mr. Pacetti.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Mr. Chair, before we undertake this study, I just want to clarify that we'd like the research staff to do a bit of research. I know they are going to be busy with the pre-budget. Perhaps Ray and I could sit down with the research staff to come up with a plan and discuss what we'd like in terms of research before we undertake the study.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Merrifield
I would suggest that we go to the steering committee so it would incorporate everybody. Is that fair enough?
Bloc
Paul Crête Bloc Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC
I would like us to vote on the motion.
Bloc
Paul Crête Bloc Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC
I would like us to vote on the motion. Let us not forget to vote.
Conservative
Bloc
Jean-Yves Laforest Bloc Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC
You held a vote on all of Mr. Crête's proposed amendments, but you said that we would then vote on the motion as a whole. But if the motion is passed and a study on taxation is undertaken, each time that the study comes across tax credits for research and development, does it mean that we will not look at them because you did not pass that item? I would like a clarification on that.
Bloc
Jean-Yves Laforest Bloc Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC
So does that get sort of excluded from the study?
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
The principle and the idea behind the motion is to see what manoeuvring room the government has when it comes to revenues. Tax credits are an expense; there is a whole list of expenses. When witnesses appear before the committee, nothing is stopping us from asking them how the government could spend its revenues. That's it.
Conservative
Bloc
Jean-Yves Laforest Bloc Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC
When we do a comparison examination of Canada's tax policy with the policies of other countries and we see that, in those other countries, the policy deals with transfers...I do not know which countries we will be talking about, but if their structure of government means that there are transfers in their tax policy, do you think that that could never be appropriate? I am just asking.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Merrifield
We're going back to the main motion right now and we are going to ask for a vote on the main motion.
(Motion agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])
It's unanimous.
There we go, perfect. Who said we can't do something unanimously in the finance committee?
Thank you very much. We will now move into the in camera session. We will take a second or two to make that happen.
[Proceedings continue in camera]
