Mr. Speaker, the member referred to the page number, so on that slight technicality, showing the 1,000 page document, I was listing some of the things that are in there, including the corporate tax segments, the schedules for capital cost allowance, all of the things that have to do with trusts, family trusts and survivor trusts, and the non-resident taxation.
The document contains a substantial number of things that have nothing to do with personal income taxation. I can tell the member that of that 1,000 page document there are only about 10 pages that are applicable to about 80% of Canadian taxpayers.
My question has to do with the capital gains side. The member noted that there are a number of provisions. Most of those are there because of history, such as the $100,000 capital gains exemption, changes to the effective rate, list of personal property and a whole host of historic aspects of capital gains.
However, the member did say that he would support eliminating capital gains tax. Let us take something as simple as the investment in the stock market. Shares obviously are valued on the basis of their after tax return. Capital gains tax would be taken into account to determine the return on investment, similar to taking into account the dividend policy with regard to that.
If the member is correct when he says that the policy should be to eliminate the tax, he probably should know that doing so would affect the ability of the companies that have capital gains history to attract capital. In fact it would penalize companies that have high dividend payouts and lower capital gain because they do not withhold money for reinvestment in the company. They are paying out.
The member suggested that we lower or eliminate the capital gain so that companies that have low dividend payouts and high expansion get a benefit ahead of those who in fact pay out higher levels of dividend yield to their shareholders. Is this what the member is trying to say? Is he saying less money for ordinary investors in Canada?