Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'm Lindsay Gwyer, director general, legislation, at the Department of Finance. I'll be speaking about part 1 of the bill.
Part 1 contains the income tax measures. There are 15 measures in part 1 of the bill, in addition to a number of technical amendments. Given the number of measures, I won't discuss them all. I'll just touch on some of the key measures. They're all summarized on the second page of the bill.
First, part 1 includes a measure to restrict deductions in respect of short-term rentals that are not compliant with applicable laws in the province or municipality in which the short-term rental is located. Part 1 also includes changes to the home buyers' plan, increasing the withdrawal limit from $35,000 to $60,000 and deferring by three years the start of the period during which individuals must repay their home buyers' plan withdrawals.
It also includes changes to certain existing tax credits. In particular, it doubles the volunteer firefighter and search and rescue tax credits, enhances the Canadian journalism labour tax credit and extends the mineral exploration tax credit by one year.
Part 1 would also implement the new Canada carbon rebate for small businesses. This measure would return a portion of federal fuel charge proceeds via a refundable tax credit directly to qualifying Canadian-controlled private corporations that have employees in provinces where the fuel charge applies.
Part 1 would also implement two new refundable investment tax credits. First, it would implement the clean hydrogen investment tax credit. The credit rate for hydrogen production would range from 15% to 40% of eligible project costs, with the cleanest hydrogen receiving the highest level of support. Ammonia production equipment that meets certain conditions would receive a 15% credit. To obtain these rates, projects would need to meet the labour requirements in Bill C‑59. The clean hydrogen credit would be available for equipment that is acquired after March 28, 2023, and would no longer be available after 2034.
The second investment tax credit is for clean technology manufacturing. It is a 30% credit that would be available for property that is acquired on or after January 1, 2024, and would no longer be available after 2034.
Part 1 would also implement significant changes to the existing alternative minimum tax. Key changes would include an increase in the rate from 15% to 20.5%, an increase in the exemption amount, a requirement to fully include most capital gains in income, and restrictions on the available tax credits and deductions.
Finally, contingent on Bill C-59 receiving royal assent, part 1 would implement a $10-million capital gains exemption available for qualifying shares of employee ownership trusts.
Those are some of the measures in part 1.
My colleagues and I would be happy to explain those or any other measures in part 1 in more detail.