That's very good. Thank you very much.
Thanks to the committee.
I have one quick question, not so much on this but relative to the whole issue of tax expenditures. The Economist just did a major front-page story on tax-free debt, making the case that the ability to deduct interest payments on debt is a little-known problem and a ticking time bomb within the world economy.
By the way, no one has to answer this. I'm just asking for any feedback if it's there.
They make the case that it's so damaging it's why Britain has moved from the American style system, where you are are allowed to deduct your mortgage payment interest, to the Canadian style where you're not.
They make the case on the corporate side that it would be worthwhile. Does anyone here agree with this or have any thoughts on it? The Economist was making the argument that switching away from allowing debt to be deducted, interest to be deducted, and, even, if you changed the tax rate to make it revenue neutral, would be an improvement in the way we run our national economies.
I wonder if anybody has any thoughts on whether this is an issue, because it is a tax expenditure. Any time there's a tax deduction, we're talking about the same as if we were spending money.
Has anything been said about this in the Canadian context or, quite frankly, has nobody talked about it? Did anybody even see the article? I'm throwing it out there to see if there's any take-up.