On that, I found it interesting, considering your presentation talked about the $50,000 for passive investments. Talking about bad communication, to be clear, the implication is $50,000 of interest earned on the small business assets they have. I found it interesting that my colleagues on the other side didn't correct you on it. However, even in the media, both sides have been proposed as the correct answer, which is that you can have $50,000 of assets or $50,000 of interest, and then you have the new tax rates kick in.
On scaling up a business, Jack Mintz, Canada's leading tax expert, has already analyzed some of the implications of these tax changes. He said that new effective tax rates, the smaller small business rate, the higher taxes on dividends, and the new earnings stripping rules—which are still going ahead, as far as we know—would basically mean that businesses would now face a higher effective tax rate, going up an extra 3.5%.
When you talk about scaling up a business, once you get into the asset range where you have enough assets to generate income—for example, $10 million's worth of assets, buildings, a second business, and employees—at that range you are looking at the tax rate when determining whether you're going to make a merger and acquisition, hire new people, or expand and scale up your business to get into the medium and larger range.
What do you think your members will say when they see that effectively their tax rates are going up 3.5%?