First of all, for 95% to 98% of Canadians, they can do their savings through their pension plan, through their RRSP, and there is no penalty for selling appreciated assets in those. So this is mainly an issue for the top maybe 2% or 3% of taxpayers and a small number of other taxpayers who are unusually high savers for their income class.
You also have to keep in mind, I think, that the capital gains tax rate is half of the normal rate, so even if you're in the top bracket in a relatively high-tax province, you're paying 22%, 23%, or maybe 24% of the gain. These are not extremely high rates compared with what ordinary earners face. A person has to make their choice of whether to sell an asset or not, but even if they don't sell, on most of these we would be talking about appreciation on gains in common shares, equities. Capital is not stagnant. These are just reflecting the value of traded pieces of paper. They don't reflect the actual books and balances and cashflows of those corporations.
So I think the notion that capital is stagnant because of people being locked in due to capital gains tax is perhaps exaggerated—perhaps a phantom, even.