Yes. The changes to the elimination of capital gains tax on gifts of publicly listed securities certainly have yielded a significant increase.
You're speaking of the cost of the measure. The Department of Finance refers to tax expenditures when they're referring to this sort of thing. It's based on the assumption that the disposition of the shares would occur in any case, that they would occur even without the favourable tax measure or the changes in the taxes.
In some ways, that's a specious assumption, because ultimately it may not have occurred. The transaction may not have occurred without it, so in fact I think they're assigning a cost to this that in fact may not be legitimate.
I think, Mr. Hallward, you said that it's not just tax changes. In addition to that, could the government be involved more in the promotion and encouragement of more giving through a national program of advertising and support? Is encouraging more giving something that the government ought to do more of? Are there examples of other jurisdictions where that is occurring?