Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Sorry you weren't sustained. I guess people don't understand the rules, but that will come back to haunt them eventually.
I want a recorded vote on this motion, Mr. Chair.
The reason I'm not supporting the motion in front of me is threefold or fourfold. I am not going to talk this out. I don't know if Monsieur Laforest was worried about that, but we have other business to deal with.
First of all, we had presentations at the meeting where we dealt with this item. The mover of the motion and the staff could not answer a number of questions, including a fundamental question of whether this is a tax credit or a straight deduction off the gross income. The PBO had one answer, and they had a different answer. I think it's only appropriate for us to make a decision that if this motion happens to fail, I would be happy to move my motion for further witnesses, including the department, to talk about what their view of the piece is.
First, we have heard that there's some discrepancy about what the five clauses actually do in terms of the tax act. I think we need the tax experts from the finance department to tell us what their interpretation of it is.
Second, we heard that there might be an amendment coming from the Liberal Party, which is fine, but I think that also should be reviewed by the PBO, which we've asked for before. People from the Parliamentary Budget Office were here. Their job is to look at suggestions, particularly in private members' bills, and what the costs would be. They gave us a range. The Liberal potential amendment was narrowing the field, which is fine, actually, but we need to know if that helps them narrow what the costs might be on this bill. And I think, as members of Parliament, we should know what that is.
Third, there was quote after quote from the PBO on the work that Professor Finnie has done at the University of Ottawa--he is close to here--on the labour market and issues of labour mobility. I think he would be an excellent witness for us to be able to question.
Those three were at the top of my list. But the fundamental of us going line by line and not knowing what we're voting on I think is inappropriate, to say the least.
If this motion fails, I'll be happy to move my motion for an extension so that we can have at least one more meeting with witnesses.
Also, after the mover of the motion and the staff get a handle on some of the questions they heard, I would like them to be able to come back with better answers, because what they told me at the beginning of the meeting and what they told me at the end of the meeting were two different things, Mr. Chair.
I cannot, in good conscience, vote on something that even the mover of the motion couldn't be specific enough about to be able to answer those questions. It is a five-clause change. It's not a huge change. They should be on top of what those changes mean. We should be on top of what those changes mean.
So for those reasons, Mr. Chair, I will not support going ahead today. I will support, if it comes to it, reintroducing my motion for an extension, since it got knocked off the list, because I want to keep it in the process and have a further meeting with proper information for us to make a decision.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.