Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Berthold, thank you for the question. I'm glad that you asked it.
Of course, we want to protect jobs. However, I want to remind you of what the experts in Quebec are saying. Pardon the expression, but it's a mess. There are two tax laws. Moreover, despite the good intentions that I acknowledge in the bill proposed by Mr. Ste-Marie, this is a very difficult undertaking that will cost someone, somewhere very dearly.
I'll give you a basic example. At the request of two members of the House of Commons, the parliamentary budget officer prepared a report, which was tabled on May 24, 2018. The report is entitled “Taxation of employer-provided health benefits.” The federal Income Tax Act makes an exception for these employer-provided benefits for employees. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Canadians receive these benefits. In Quebec, these benefits are considered a taxable benefit. The study conducted by the parliamentary budget officer, which I can give you, explains that, in order to file a single tax return, only one employment income, not two, must be reported.
For example, on the T4 form of a person in Quebec who receives benefits from their employer, one amount is reported and on the Relevé 1 from Quebec, another amount is reported. This amount includes the taxable benefit. Two incomes can't be reported on the same form. The parliamentary budget officer has found that, if the federal government were to conform to the Quebec legislation by treating this as a taxable benefit, it would amount to $2.8 billion a year in additional taxes for individuals and an additional $1 billion in lost benefits tied to the old age pension, family allowances for children, and so on, for a total of an additional $3.8 billion for Canadian taxpayers.
If Quebec wants to fall in line with the federal legislation, it will need to provide the exemption that the federal government grants for this benefit. I don't have any figures on hand. However, I can tell you that these amounts certainly account for hundreds of millions of dollars a year for Quebec. That said, the federal government and the other provinces don't work this way. It's irreconcilable. It will cost Quebec hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue, or it will cost Canadian taxpayers billions of dollars for us to fall in line and have a single tax return. I'll spare you all the other complications associated with having two different laws. There must be one definition of income, but there are two, because there are two laws. There are significant differences between the two laws.