Thank you, and welcome to the officials. There are dozens of you in the room today, and that means we're examining another omnibus budget implementation act. Welcome back and I'm sorry we are in such a time crunch dealing with so many different topics. I'm sure that Canadians watching the proceedings will be confused as we jump from topic to topic over the course of this meeting.
I want to ask a question in part 1 about credit unions. In budget 2013 there was a surprise tax hike on credit unions that will see their taxes increase from 11% to 15%. This will cost them, I'm told, over $200 million over the next five years. I know that this was dealt with in the Budget Implementation Act in the spring. At that time, we asked about the rationale for making this change. We didn't really get much in the way of answers that recognized the distinct nature of credit unions as opposed to Canada's large banks. Since that time I've had the opportunity to meet with many more credit unions, not only the ones in my own community, but also many across the country. They have told me what this will mean. Because of this tax hike on credit unions, there are many community investments they will not be able to make, and there are a number of community projects they will not be able to fund as they have in the past.
This may be a difficult question for officials and more appropriately asked to the minister or parliamentary secretary, but given that you are here today, I ask you, have there been subsequent impact studies on this change?
I also want to ask a further question about the elements addressed in this BIA.