Thank you. It reads:
Whereas the Sixth Report of the Standing Committee on Finance entitled: The Canada Revenue Agency, Tax Avoidance and Tax Evasion: Recommended Actions calls on the federal government to review the Income Tax Act and report back to the Committee by June 30, 2017;
Whereas the Department of Finance is conducting a review of the Income Tax Act that is ongoing and not yet complete;
That the Standing Committee on Finance defer its hearings on the study undertaken following the motion adopted on June 16, 2016 until after the federal government has completed its review and reported back to the Committee.
This motion effectively defers what was supposed to be the upcoming tax study. There are a number of reasons that I can speak to that.
First, obviously we had asked, in our sixth report of the Standing Committee on Finance, for the federal government to review the Income Tax Act.
Second, there will be an upcoming budget. There may or may not be measures in there that the government may want to undertake, so it would be better to conduct any sort of review after the budget.
Third, from a competitive standpoint, we don't know yet what will happen with the new Trump administration, including any sort of tax changes the administration will undertake and what they will mean for our competitiveness and how we look at our tax system.
When you connect all the dots, there is good reason to move this study to a later date.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.