Thanks very much for this opportunity. I'm sorry I can't be there in person, as I normally can.
I have three points.
First, the question is raised of how much revenue will be increased for the high-income taxpayers' rates. I'm not going to repeat what France said. I agree with what she said. There is the issue of the erosion of the tax base that is a consequence of that increase. I think, as she correctly said, there should be some emphasis that this has an effect on the provinces as well. While economists are well known for disagreeing, I agree with the C.D. Howe Institute, the Department of Finance, and the parliamentary budget office that the federal revenue increase from this measure will likely be in the neighbourhood of somewhere between $1 billion and $1.8 billion. It used to be that I would have guessed more towards the low end of that range, but my more recent calculations suggest that it may be towards the upper. Nonetheless, as these things go, that's a fairly narrow range.
There is one wild card here. There is a recent suggestion in the economics literature that the effects of the tax increase on top-income individuals could perhaps also—