Finance Committee on May 15th, 2012

[Hoang Mai, NDP, Brossard—La Prairie, QC]

Mr. Chair, if the finance minister cannot answer questions on the bill that he has submitted, and we have asked to split the bill, I think it makes sense. That is why we asked to split the bill. If the minister cannot answer questions, maybe he should—

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

I know how I am going to rule, but I can take further input if I want.

Mr. Brison, do you want to comment further?

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Kings—Hants, NS]

Mr. Chair, just on Ms. Glover's point of order, I found it curious that the budget implementation act debate in the House was led by the Minister of Natural Resources and the Minister of the Environment.

While Ms. Glover is right in saying that there is a subcommittee on finance, there is no subminister of finance. There is one Minister of Finance, and this is his legislation, ultimately.

I share with Mr. Mai the concern that the Minister of Finance cannot answer questions on his own legislation.

[Jim Flaherty, Conservative, Whitby—Oshawa, ON]

If you have technical questions, the officials are here to answer those.

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Kings—Hants, NS]

Where are they?

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Order.

I'll go to Mr. Jean, and then I'll bring my point.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

Just very quickly, Mr. Chair, I noticed we have a document from the Library of Parliament, a non-partisan group, that has 44 pages of explanations for Mr. Mai, in particular on pages 10 through 17, on measures related to responsible resource development, which he can read instead of playing politics and asking questions so specific that no one would be able to answer them—

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Thank you.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

—on the fly.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Just for members' information, technically we don't have a subcommittee yet.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

That may be something we discuss later.

With regard to Mr. Mai's questions, Mr. Mai can ask the questions he wants regarding the bill, but the minister is entirely within his jurisdiction to ask officials to respond to those questions.

I'll just remind committee members that we have a number of hours with officials, of whom we can ask very detailed questions as well.

I'll also point out, Mr. Mai, that you have about one minute left.

[Hoang Mai, NDP, Brossard—La Prairie, QC]

One minute? I'll try to go to a broader question. Maybe the minister can answer it.

The proposed Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, 2012, contains several provisions regarding public participation and the use of an Internet site. How will the government fulfill its constitutional obligation to provide notice to first nations potentially affected by developments?

[Jim Flaherty, Conservative, Whitby—Oshawa, ON]

That's a good technical question for the officials to answer.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Okay.

Thank you, Mr. Mai.

I want to thank you, Minister, for being with us here today.

[Jim Flaherty, Conservative, Whitby—Oshawa, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

I understand that you have a Senate committee to present to.

[Jim Flaherty, Conservative, Whitby—Oshawa, ON]

Yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Colleagues, I will suspend this now and we will bring the finance officials to the table.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

I call this meeting back to order.

I want to welcome all our officials. We have with us officials from the Canada Revenue Agency and the Department of Finance.

I want to welcome you to our committee. It's our understanding that we may be spending a lot of time together over the next number of days.

My understanding, Mr. Cook, is that you may have a few opening remarks to make to the committee. Is that correct?

[Ted Cook, Senior Legislative Chief, Tax Legislation Division, Tax Policy Branch, Department of Finance]

It depends on how the chair would like to proceed. I could either do that or provide a brief overview of all the measures in part 1. That would probably take about two or three minutes.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

I think a brief overview would be helpful.

As chair, my suggestion is that we proceed part by part, so we would start with part 1.

If you could give us an overview of part 1, then, if any members have questions, we'll go to members' questions.

[Ted Cook]

Thank you.

Part 1 contains the income tax measures in Bill C-38. What I would propose to do is to essentially follow the summary at the start of Bill C-38, which provides a list of all the measures.

The first measure that is listed is to expand the list of medical expenses eligible for the medical expense tax credit to include blood coagulation monitors and associated peripherals. This measure parallels a GST/HST, which is in part 2 of this bill.

The second measure was referred to in the discussion with the minister. This will allow qualifying family members, that is, parents, spouses, and common-law partners, to open a registered disability savings plan for an adult in situations where the contractual competence of the individual to do so is in doubt. In situations where it is determined that the individual does have contractual competency, they will be able to then replace the qualifying family member as holder of the RDSP, if they choose to do so. This measure will apply to RDSPs that are opened before 2017. However, those RDSPs will continue on as long as necessary.

The next measure relates to the mineral exploration tax credit. It extends the tax credit available to flow-through share investors by one year, as has been done in the last several budgets. What this measure does is to support grassroots mineral exploration. It will apply to flow-through share agreements entered into after March 2012 and before April 2013.

The next measure has to do with eligible dividend designations. Under the Income Tax Act, individuals—

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Point of order, Mr. Jean.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

Chair, is it my understanding that we're going to go through each part and then ask questions, or ask questions as we go to the parts we might have questions on? I just wanted to—