Thank you, Minister, for being here. I'm pleased to see that our colleagues from the government side used their question time to get all these softie questions thrown at you, so maybe we could challenge you a bit. We'll get off script a bit and ask a couple of questions that I'm hearing from my constituents, quite frankly, and that we also heard from witnesses who testified before our committee on Bill C-29.
I'd like to ask you first about a concern that's being expressed. I'm sure that your inbox is flooded, like ours are, by those medical professionals who are concerned about the elimination of the small business deduction for group medical structures under clause 44 of Bill C-29.
Both the radiologists and the Canadian Medical Association, who were here last week, referred to it as “unintended consequences”. I actually challenged your colleagues on this committee, because several of the questions were pretty clear that this was not an unintended consequence but a direct attempt to get at small businesses.
I'd like you to clarify before this committee whether this was an unintended consequence and whether this is an attempt to fix a loophole, which seems to be the indication coming from your colleagues on the other side, or are you going to look at an amendment based on the representations we've heard?