Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon, Minister. I have a number of questions.
The first is about businesses that have told us how concerned they are regarding measures in Bill C‑47. I'm talking about companies that run large IT servers on high-speed fibre optic networks and lease that data transfer and calculating capacity to the highest bidder.
Some of those companies' clients engage in cryptocurrency mining, whether in Canada or another country. Our understanding of Bill C‑47—and the department officials confirmed this—is that companies exporting a service such as mining would no longer be considered to be performing a commercial activity eligible for the input sales tax credit. This means that the company would have to pay the tax, hurting their competitiveness.
That applies to the whole tax, and since Quebec's sales tax is higher than Alberta's, for example, this could incentivize companies to move the activity someplace where the energy is derived from fossil fuels. Can you reassure the industry? Are there any mitigation measures? What's the solution, and where do you stand on the matter?