Mr. Speaker, when analyzing the tax system, the department relies on a range of approaches and information sources to develop an in-depth understanding of potential issues, including the statistical analysis of tax return data, the monitoring of the tax literature, and consultations with the Canada Revenue Agency, academics, tax professionals, and other stakeholders.
When the analysis identifies a need for action, the department develops options and assesses these options against a range of criteria, such as their impact on the fairness of the tax system, on economic efficiency, and on the ease of administration of the tax system.
This process was followed in the development of the three proposals that were unveiled on July 18, 2017. Draft legislation was also released for two of the proposals and stakeholders were invited to comment on the proposals and the draft legislation. Feedback was received from many Canadians, including small business owners, doctors, professionals, and farmers and fishers. The department consulted with the Canadian Medical Association prior to July 18 on tax planning strategies involving the multiplication of the small business deduction, which have interactions with the strategies addressed in the July 18 consultation paper.
On October 16, 2017, the Government announced that the small business tax rate would be reduced to 10% as of January 1, 2018, and then to 9% as of January 1, 2019. To support this tax reduction, the Government also announced that it would be moving forward with its plan to ensure that private corporations are not used to obtained unintended tax benefits.
The department does not prepare estimates of the number of physicians in Canada. Such information can be obtained from the Canadian Institute for Health Information and the Canadian Medical Association.