Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Minister, thank you for being with us today. I am certain that the Liberal Party's platform and promises matter a great deal to you and that, as Minister of Finance, you feel strongly about sticking to them.
With that in mind, I'm going to hone in on a number of areas where the budget falls short. I want to begin by bringing up an element in a recent NDP motion that you supported; it was on March 8. The motion sought to cap the stock option deduction loophole, which benefits the wealthiest members of society.
You mentioned, in your opening remarks, that you had reviewed federal tax expenditures over the past year in order to identify provisions in the Income Tax Act that needed fixing.
You supported the NDP motion. Why, then, in Budget 2017, did you not cap the stock option deduction loophole, which benefits the wealthiest members of society?