As we mentioned earlier, approximately $11 billion is being held up at the border. Every month, companies pay substantial amounts in taxes and customs duties.
There are two sides to this issue: past deposits and future deposits. The suggestion that was recently put forward only addresses future deposits. From what I understand of the proposal that is circulating, it would involve having an amount equivalent to 50% of the deposits so that the repurchase of these deposits would provide companies with liquidity.
As mentioned in other testimonies, there have been situations in the past where these deposits had a certain value. There was a refund of up to 80% of the value of the deposits. Currently, finance companies are buying back these deposits at a rate of about 30% to 40%.
We can therefore easily say that this is an asset that exists. These are amounts that we cannot currently reinvest in our activities. Domtar, for its part, has approximately $1 billion Canadian tied up. For the industry as a whole, the figure is $11 billion Canadian. These are sums that we cannot currently reinvest to diversify our activities, become more competitive and envisage a more prosperous future.
The proposal on future deposits is therefore very interesting, but I think we also need to look at previous deposits.