My questions are for Mr. Dickie.
You draw a link between taxation and a number of advantages. On page 5 of your document, I note that all of your requests to the government would amount to a reasonable $450 million. I then told myself that either that was insufficient or the potential positive outcomes were rather substantial.
On page 2 you state that, because of Canada's current tax position, there is excess home ownership and people are unable to sell their homes, and labour mobility is inhibited. You are saying that the unemployment rate is increasing because people are unable to sell their homes. I would like to know how widespread that is.
On pages 3 and 4, you say that the tax conditions lower rents and encourage better maintenance. According to you, people who invest because of favourable tax conditions benefit from a better return on their assets. I think that any portfolio manager would agree that if there were no taxes, returns would be enhanced.
Furthermore, on page 3, you state that a tax deferral would promote sound urban redevelopment. You go so far as to say that it would improve labour mobility and reduce absenteeism rates. I get the impression that you are placing too much importance on taxation. Being a tax expert myself, I would never have thought that $450 million could generate so many advantages. It would seem to me that if that were the case, those measures would already have been implemented. So how did you come up with all those positive elements?