Thank you.
We do now have accrual accounting when it comes to the expenditures of the government. I'm wondering if there is a way we can account for, in the tax system, decisions by governments that are made in the present but that have long-term revenue consequences.
Let me give you another example. The government is proposing measures to penalize passive investment within Canadian-controlled private corporations. That will force a lot of people to take their money out of their company and to be taxed on it in the present so that they can save for their retirement outside of the company. If that happens, yes, the government will get a short-term burst of revenue, but all of that money that would have stayed in those companies and been taxed nevertheless later on when it was taken out will no longer be available five or 10 years down the road as it would otherwise have been. In fact, in this case, even if there are no behavioural consequences to the policy decision, there will be a long-term revenue loss, because not only will the government not be able to tax that money down the road, but any growth on that money will never have occurred and therefore will not be taxable either. Therefore, the government gets the benefit of a short-term burst of cash into its coffers, even though the long-term financial implications are negative for the crown and, in this case, as it turns out, for the taxpayer. There ought to be some way that the accounting system can take into consideration the long-term loss of revenue that is a definitive result of a short-term tax measure decision.