Finance Committee on June 8th, 2026

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

Good afternoon, colleagues. I call this meeting to order.

Welcome to meeting number 45 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance. Pursuant to the order of reference of Tuesday, May 26, 2026, and the motion adopted by the committee on Thursday, May 7, 2026, the committee will resume consideration of Bill C-30, an act to implement certain provisions of the spring economic update tabled in Parliament on April 28, 2026.

I would like to say a few words to the members of the committee on how committees proceed with the clause-by-clause consideration of a bill.

As the name indicates, this is an examination of all the clauses in the order in which they appear in the bill. I will call each clause successively, and each clause is subject to debate and a vote. If there are amendments to the clause in question, I will recognize the member proposing it, who may explain it. Amendments will be considered in the order in which they appear in the package each member received from the clerks.

In addition to having to be properly drafted in a legal sense, amendments must also be procedurally admissible. The chair may be called upon to rule amendments inadmissible if they go against the principle of the bill or beyond the scope of the bill—both of which were adopted by the House when it agreed to the bill at second reading—or if they offend the financial prerogative of the Crown.

During debate on an amendment, members are permitted to move subamendments. Only one subamendment may be considered at a time, and that subamendment cannot be amended.

Once every clause has been voted on, the committee will vote on the title and the bill itself. An order to reprint the bill may be required, if amendments are adopted, so that the House has a proper copy for use at report stage.

I thank the members for their attention and wish everyone a productive clause-by-clause consideration of Bill C‑30.

I would like to welcome our witnesses, who are available to answer technical questions related to the bill. I'm not going to go through them by name, as members will have received that list. Most of them are sitting in the back, and there might be a couple of them who are online, if members have questions for them.

With that, we will begin clause-by-clause.

Pursuant to Standing Order 75(1), consideration of clause 1, the short title, is postponed.

(On clause 2)

We will begin with clause 2, and we have CPC-1.

Who is moving CPC-1?

[Jasraj Singh Hallan, Conservative, Calgary East, AB]

I'll move it. Should I just read it?

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

Yes, please.

[Jasraj Singh Hallan, Conservative, Calgary East, AB]

I move that Bill C-30, in clause 2, be amended by adding, after line 2 on page 2, the following:

(4) Within six months after the day on which this section comes into force, the Minister of Labour in collaboration with the Minister of Finance must table a report in each House of Parliament, on any of the first fifteen days on which that House is sitting after the report is made, that includes:

(a) the expected number of tradespeople eligible for the labour mobility deduction as amended under this section;

(b) the average benefit received by eligible tradespeople under the modified labour mobility deduction; and

(c) the regional distribution of claims made under the modified labour mobility deduction.

The reasoning behind this is that we'd like to get a bit more transparency and clarity to see how much people from each region are getting. In the future, if this program is something to keep, then we'll know the regional distribution. Otherwise, if it's something that isn't working out, then there's more clarity on how much money went out and why it's not working out. I think it's a good way for us to show transparency for this program. That's why we're moving this amendment forward.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

Thank you.

Mr. Turnbull, go ahead.

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Whitby, ON]

Madam Chair, the government opposes this amendment. It would require the government to report information that will not likely be available within the mandated timelines. Further, it would require the publication of a report with some information that is already published annually in the report on federal tax expenditures. This report is customarily tabled in the House of Commons, along with the main estimates.

Furthermore, Bill C-30 would amend the Income Tax Act to modify the labour mobility deduction as of the 2026 tax year and, thus, will first be reflected on tax returns filed in spring 2027. The Department of Finance would not have access to this data until late 2027, at the earliest.

As with some other Conservative amendments, we feel that the mandated timelines this specifies cannot be reasonably met and, in some cases, are duplicative to other reports that are already tabled in the House.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

Mr. Kelly, would you like to add something?

[Pat Kelly, Conservative, Calgary Crowfoot, AB]

Sure. I don't know if you have a list or if anybody else would like to add to this as well.

We have officials here. I wonder if we can have the officials comment. I mean, Mr. Turnbull has said that he doesn't believe this amendment would be possible. I'd like officials to comment on this and find out what the obstacle to—

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

Officials are coming to the table.

Mr. Turnbull.

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Whitby, ON]

On a point of order, Madam Chair, for the record, I didn't say it was not possible. I made an argument as to why it was unnecessary. Those are two very different things.

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

Thank you, Mr. Turnbull.

Officials, can you please state your names before you answer questions? That's just for the interpreters.

[Mark Maxson, Senior Director, Employment and Education, Personal Income Tax Division, Department of Finance]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I'm Mark Maxson. I'm a director of employment and education in the personal income tax division at the Department of Finance.

With respect to feasibility, for the specific first amendment in respect of the labour mobility deduction, I can say that it does require that within six months after the day on which the section comes into force, a report be tabled with information on claims of the deduction as modified by this bill. Claims based on this modified version of the deduction will be made next spring, by April 30, 2027. Typically, the Department of Finance will not receive that information from the Canada Revenue Agency until mid-summer at the earliest. We get very preliminary information. It's really not complete and reliable information until late 2027.

I can't speak to exactly when this bill will receive royal assent and when the section comes into force, but there's a high likelihood that the data requested would not be available within six months of that date.

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Hallan.

[Jasraj Singh Hallan, Conservative, Calgary East, AB]

This is a question for the officials.

From what you're saying, it seems that the only issue is the first 15 days. Am I right in saying that?

[Mark Maxson]

There is a requirement that it be tabled “within six months” of the coming into force of the section. Then, I believe, within 15 days of making the report, it's to be tabled in the House. The six-month window, I think, is where the time limitation is.

[Jasraj Singh Hallan, Conservative, Calgary East, AB]

If you were to suggest a subamendment for this, what would it be?

[Mark Maxson]

I don't believe it's my place to suggest a subamendment, but the data would be available to the Department of Finance toward the end of 2027. Some parts of it will also be published in the annual report on federal tax expenditures that's tabled each spring.

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

Mr. Lawrence.

[Philip Lawrence, Conservative, Northumberland—Clarke, ON]

I'm sorry. I just want to follow up on that from my colleagues, because I didn't quite catch this.

If we changed it from six months to a year, would the information in all likelihood be ready?

[Mark Maxson]

I don't know when the clock starts ticking. It depends on when the section comes into force. What I can say is that the information would be available at the Department of Finance by the end of 2027.

[Philip Lawrence, Conservative, Northumberland—Clarke, ON]

If it got passed today, in order for us to be confident that the information would be available, we'd have to make it a year and a half.

Am I making sense, based on those assumptions?

[Mark Maxson]

That sounds about right.

[Philip Lawrence, Conservative, Northumberland—Clarke, ON]

I have a secondary question. You said that some of this information is available in a document on tax expenditures. Would it include the number of tradespeople who are eligible for the labour mobility deduction? That's something that would be important to us.

[Mark Maxson]

The report published annually includes the number of claimants and the total tax expenditure—the total cost, if you will, or the total benefit to that number of claimants.

[Philip Lawrence, Conservative, Northumberland—Clarke, ON]

We could obviously just do the math on that. That would give you the average benefit.

What about the regional distribution of the claims? Is that information included?