Sure. I can try to answer that question.
It's a measure that was announced in last year's budget. It addresses certain hedging transactions that financial institutions engage in. Effectively what they do is the following.
Under general principles, there's a deduction where a Canadian company receives a dividend from another Canadian company. They have certain types of planning that will take advantage of that deduction and effectively allow them to double the deduction. They have a member in a group who will hold shares long—so they'll own shares in a Canadian company—and then a registered securities dealer within the group will borrow and short-sell those shares. As a result of that short-selling arrangement, they typically would have an obligation to make a payment equal to the amount of the dividend, and they would receive a deduction equal to two-thirds of the amount of that payment under existing rules in the Income Tax Act.
In those situations, they're effectively able to get one deduction for the dividend received and another deduction for the payment that was made equal to two-thirds the amount of the dividend. So they get a one and two-thirds deduction on the dividend, even though economically, they have no exposure to the shares because they have a long position and a short position.
The purpose of the measure is to address that planning and amend the rules, so that in that situation, they're only able to get one deduction, which is equal to the amount they paid out with respect to that dividend.