When businesses want to acquire assets or other companies, they have to outbid their competitors. They make those bids out of liquid assets inside the company, and typically those liquid assets are classified under the Income Tax Act as passive investments.
Do you worry that there will be distortions in those competitive bidding processes as a result of the fact that one group of companies, the privately owned, will pay a significantly higher rate of taxation on its passive investments than will another group, public corporations? For example, for a farmer saving up to buy a quarter section, he has to be taxed at a rate as high as 72% on passive income, whereas a publicly traded land aggregator will not face those taxations and therefore could outbid the farmer. Myriad other analogous examples could be given.
Do you worry that such distortion and imbalance could result from the proposed tax changes?