I think it's important to first point out that people who are declaring large capital gains are in an incredibly privileged position in our society. On the back of the napkin, so to speak, looking at $1 million in capital gains in Canada, under the new rules, $625,000 of that million would need to be declared for income tax purposes, whereas previously $500,000 would have to be declared for income tax purposes. At the top marginal tax rate, if you're looking at a 50% federal and provincial income tax rate, the difference is $60,000 on $1 million of income.
Maybe if you're talking about a situation where you're getting into millions and millions of dollars and it's all declared in one year, there may be some issues with that, but again, we're talking about how much of a discount we're providing compared to the 100% inclusion rate for earning income through wages and salaries, so I don't know that that's necessarily the core thing we need to be thinking about. I'd be interested in seeing specific examples of where this happens.
There are provisions in the tax code for farms and fishing properties. When you transfer them to your child, they can be spread over up to nine years, thereby reducing the likelihood of amounts and capital gains going above that $250,000 threshold. In situations like that, to the extent that we consider them a public policy problem, allowing folks to average out those gains over a number of years is generally a good way of doing it.