I would like to talk about Mr. MacKinnon's motion. We are not opposed to it. A number of witnesses have suggested looking at simplifying taxation. The Income Tax Act is now over 3,000 pages long. I think 1,000 pages were added in the last Parliament.
It is a very general motion for the time being. We will be reviewing the act, so we would like to gain an overview. I wonder whether the Standing Committee on Finance will really have the time to do something meaningful in this regard, given its mandate. We already have the prebudget consultations, which will take up a good part of the fall. I suppose there will also be a budget implementation bill, which will mean a month of work easily. Then we stop in the middle of December and don't return until the end of January. We will then have to prepare for the release of the budget, which is usually at the end of February or in March. The budget implementation bill will then follow, which we are finishing up now.
So that leaves very few meetings. Moreover, that does not include other motions that might be adopted, such as Mr. McColeman's motion pertaining to real estate and rising prices.
I am not opposed to the spirit of the motion; on the contrary, it will be very interesting work. I am concerned though that it might not be realistic to think that we can really do a thorough study given the limited time and resources available to us.