Thank you, Chair.
Thank you, witnesses.
I'd like to start my questioning with Mr. Vineberg.
Sir, you're a well-known expert on non-resident trusts, family trusts, and the like, and it would be very helpful if you might tell us a little bit—and I realize the difficulty with having only a couple of minutes is that the question may be too vast.
You did talk about non-resident beneficiaries and the reforms to clause 274 and section 94. I want to know to what extent you think Canadian taxpayers are using non-resident trusts for tax avoidance purposes. There are also the foreign investment entities, of course.
I'm asking you a couple of questions. Given the amazingly complex amendments to section 94 that are proposed in this bill, are you surprised that they are contained in a technical tax bill rather than in a stand-alone bill? Did they make it more confusing or less confusing?
There are a couple of questions embedded in there: on tax avoidance and on the complexity of the way in which these changes were made in this particular technical bill.