Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The motion provides as follows:
That the federal government urgently address the undue financial hardship of employees who have acquired stock from their employer through either a stock option plan (ESO) or a stock purchase plan (ESPP), have been assessed a tax benefit based on unrealized gain at the time of acquisition where that tax liability greatly exceeds any eventual realized gain, their means to pay and, in some cases, their personal net worth, [...]
I'll now summarize the elements of the motion: studying the financial impact, reporting to the minister and to Parliament and changing the provisions of the Income Tax Act to address the situation.
In an informal discussion earlier with Mr. Wallace, of the Conservative Party, and with Mr. McCallum, of the Liberal Party, I was informed that I would be receiving friendly suggestions to improve the text. I am entirely prepared to consider them because the goal here is to analyze and correct this situation.
As you will no doubt remember, Mr. Chairman, when we recently received the head of the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, we discussed the matter with him. Mr. MacKay, of the Liberal Party, and myself were confused when he explained to us that the remission order granted to certain employees of JDS Uniphase was not available for other persons in an identical situation. That situation was unique in the annals of the past 90 years at Revenue Canada. This is a concern to us, and we're trying to get to the bottom of this matter. I am very much open to Mr. McCallum's and Mr. Wallace's suggestions.