Evidence of meeting #119 for Finance in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was million.
2:45 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
Thank you, Ms. Ballantyne.
Mr. Sorbara, you get the last question, and that will be all for this panel.
2:45 p.m.
Liberal
Francesco Sorbara Liberal Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON
Thank you, Chair.
Mr. Goodis, it's a very simple question. Yes or no, do you agree with extending the tax on split income rules as they exist now, from income to dividends, as suggested in our proposal, commonly known as income sprinkling?
2:45 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder, Tax Templates Inc., As an Individual
Sorry, I can't say yes or no. That's because I understand that the proposals, the legislation, is coming out on Tuesday and the devil will be in the details.
2:45 p.m.
Liberal
Francesco Sorbara Liberal Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON
Stepping back again, I'll ask one more time. Tax on split income; if you believe in tax fairness, 50,000 families having a preferential advantage when, on income sprinkling, someone is allowed to dividend the income to a family member who does not work in the firm, even in the 18-year-old to 24-year-old category, do you agree that is fair?
2:45 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder, Tax Templates Inc., As an Individual
I can't give you a yes or no answer to that, because I don't think you're looking at the full—
2:45 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
Francesco, Mr. Goodis is not obligated to answer yes or no. Give your answer, Mr. Goodis, and we'll move from there.
2:45 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder, Tax Templates Inc., As an Individual
Right, I appreciate your looking for a direct answer, but it all depends on the circumstance. I'll just give you a situation about a spouse.
Let's say you have [Technical difficulty—Editor]
2:45 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder, Tax Templates Inc., As an Individual
Let's just say we have a spouse, and while someone is starting a business, the other spouse is now bringing in all the funds to help support the family. You could go through the mechanical exercise of taking all the money the spouse brings in, dollar-for-dollar, back to the corporation, and pay a dividend to the other spouse, even though they are not involved in the business. You could say they are helping the family unit, just like we see under family law but, that being said, I do see situations where I'm glad the government is looking at this issue. There are people who are abusing the system such as having 10 different people all over the country, cousins, aunts, or uncles, who have no involvement in the business, who have no reason, in my opinion, to be taking advantage of those marginal rates, but I don't think you can look at it simply at a spouse or the kids, what their involvements are, and then everybody else.
Yes, there's a targeting measure, and we need to do something. I just don't think we have it right, based on what I've seen.
2:45 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
Okay, with that I'll thank all the witnesses for their responses to questions.
For the committee, we will suspend for five minutes and go to the open-mike session.
Thank you all. It is much appreciated.
2:55 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
We'll reconvene for the open-mike session.
Where I believe we had 10 witnesses this morning, we have one this afternoon, which is appropriate, because our witness here is from ONE.
Ms. Selma Sahin, the floor is yours.
3 p.m.
Selma Sahin As an Individual
Bonjour. My name is Selma Sahin, and I am a volunteer with the ONE organization.
I know you all have heard this from various volunteers around the country. I have a little apology up front that hopefully it will put a bit of a smile on your face.
I came this morning to register, per the instructions I was given, and had my wonderful statement that I had written out last night on my iPad. Guess what I forgot to bring with me when I came back this afternoon. I was furiously writing down what I could remember. It's not nearly as concise or as beautifully constructed as it was last night. I'm just going to have to free-form today with my brief notes, so I apologize up front, which is a very Canadian thing to do.
As you all know, ONE was co-founded by Bono. It's a global organization with over 8.6 million members worldwide. We advocate in particular to reduce extreme poverty globally and deadly infectious diseases around the world, especially in Africa.
I know this committee has already heard from volunteers about how poverty is sexist; hence, globally 130 million girls, four times Canada's population or greater, can't go to school, not because they don't want to but because they're not allowed to or able to.
We also know that Canada can do its part, to be part of the solution, for just two cents a day per citizen. I believe this would support the Canadian government's emphasis on women's issues worldwide, as Prime Minister Trudeau and our other ministers have spoken about.
I understand there are obviously so many valid, competing priorities for the Canadian federal budget. No question, there are things that must be done, but I also realize that we, as a country, represent compassion in doing our part to make things better around the world.
On a personal note, I'm retired from a global corporation that gives to charities and supports causes to improve lives around the world and encourages its staff to do so. That is why I have contributed for decades to United Way and other Canadian charities, and for nine years to personally sponsor a girl's education in Kenya.
As someone who is retired and living on a pension, I continue to make my contributions because I believe it's the right thing to do. I believe that by helping others we're actually helping all of us by globally improving the standards of living and increasing life expectancy. For example, in Africa, if girls could all complete high school, there would be 1.8 million lives saved per year, so it's not just a question of earning more income but that there are actually lives being saved. Of course, we all recognize that women make up approximately half the global population, so if they cannot contribute to the well-being of their communities to make the world better, that's a loss.
I do believe a tiny fraction of the Canadian budget can definitely be leveraged to support causes where a dollar overseas goes so much farther and can have such a greater impact than just what we do here.
That's it, unless there are any questions. Thank you so much for your time and attention.
3 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
Thank you very much, Selma. You're the last witness for pre-budget consultations 2018.
Before we adjourn, I just want to, as chair, certainly thank all the members. It was a fairly extensive meeting tour across the country and there was a lot of endurance on the members' part. We heard most interesting presentations, and we certainly thank everyone for that.
I want to thank, as well, on behalf of the committee, the people in the booth who do the simultaneous translation. There are times when it's a little speedy, and I certainly thank them for their efforts. As well, I want to thank the people at the front desk who do the registration, the folks back here who make sure the mikes are on, and all the work that they do. Thanks to all the people who have helped the committee. There's our analyst Brett, whose real, intensive work is just starting—Brett, you have our sympathy—and certainly the clerk. As committee members know, I got a picture of her in St. John's airport. She was on her knees and had a file on her briefcase as she tried to get one of the witnesses on that we had this morning. There was a lot of effort by all, so, on behalf of the committee, to all of those who helped in the organization, thank you very much.
With that, we will adjourn.