Sure. Thank you for the question.
When I say that, I do not have the authority to decide what the policy is. I've looked at these rules a long time, and I will say that the policy has a push-and-pull to it, so we have long-standing rules that allow multinationals to have their dividends come back to Canada exempt from corporate tax. There are ways they can minimize their corporate tax elsewhere, so that's the source of a lot of the profit shifting that comes into Canada.
However, when governments, both Liberal and Conservative, have tried to enact rules that will stem that practice, those rules don't get enacted, for various reasons—lobbying, pressure from the law and accounting firms on the advice of their clients, etc.
However, there's a balancing to do to decide if the rules that allow an exemption from corporate tax on dividends coming back to Canada provide a net benefit to us. Is there a net economic benefit? I think that in the seventies, the belief was yes. We're a net capital importing country. We need this to compete with the U.S., Germany and Japan.
Do we need that in 2025? It's not clear to me that we do. It's not clear to me that the policy makes sense: for example, to allow interest deductions in Canada or scientific research credits in Canada to fund offshore investment that then results in income that's brought back to Canada with no tax. You get a deduction here, and when the income comes back, you have no inclusion. Maybe that makes sense from a competitive point of view, but it requires serious consideration whether that's the right call.