Finance committee  For these detailed questions, I'll turn to Mr. Mahabir and Mr. Bernier, who can provide a list of these countries. I'd say that the scale of the electronic funds transfers to these countries is disproportionate to the economic activity in these countries or to Canada's economic ties with them.

Finance committee  I can put the amount in perspective: $3 trillion, or $3,000 billion, is more than Canada's GDP. These transaction or cash flows—some transactions occur more than once a year in various inflows and outflows of funds—are completely disproportionate to the economic activity of the country in question.

Finance committee  Okay. I'll answer that first question quickly. The scope of the report today was to look at international taxation of corporations. We did not look at the underground economy now or 20 years ago. That said, based on my previous experience when I was in the public service, the underground economy is inherently very difficult to measure—people don't want to be found, obviously—but with the advent of new technologies and the shift to more electronic payments as opposed to cash transactions, one can reasonably assume that the underground economy is not necessarily more prevalent than it was 20 years ago, for that very reason.

Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  We did indeed confirm in a report tabled in late April, if I'm not mistaken, that the government's plan to return the proceeds from the price on carbon would indeed benefit the vast majority of households. So 80% of households will be better off in the four provinces that are currently subject to the backstop.

Finance committee  Yes. Good morning, Mr. Chair, vice-chairs and members of the committee. I don't know if I should say “Good morning” or “Good afternoon”, but I'll stick with “Good morning”. Thank you for the invitation to appear before you today to discuss our latest report, “Preliminary Findings on International Taxation”, which was published earlier today.

Environment committee  We haven't looked at the effectiveness of the OBPS. We have looked only at the revenues that it will generate. We have not pronounced on or carefully looked at whether it is an effective, or even a cost-effective, way of reducing greenhouse gases.

Environment committee  Our assumption is that 90% of the revenues will continue to be returned to households, and 90% of our declining pie will be smaller, obviously.

Environment committee  On the second part, because of the mathematical link between the revenues generated and the rebate, I cannot see very many scenarios where individuals would be worse off. There would be very few scenarios in which that would be the case. It would occur if there were no exports, for all intents and purposes.

Environment committee  Yes, there is evidence that a price on carbon does reduce greenhouse gases. The debate—and I'm not the one who will settle that debate—is whether it's too high a price to pay to reduce greenhouse gases or whether it's acceptable. It's up to people such as you to determine that. However, there is evidence to show that if you put a price on greenhouse gas emissions, all other things being equal, emissions will tend to go down.

Environment committee  Yes, but at such a level, there would start to be disruptive impacts for some industries, those that are carbon-intensive. The higher you go on that price, the more disruptive it becomes.

Environment committee  As an economist, I'm certain that the more expensive something becomes, the less demand there will be for it. Is it an effective way? It is certainly an effective way. I'd say it's not the only way. As all people in the field know, there's also regulation. That's one way, and subsidies are another way, but generally speaking, the consensus among economists is that a broad-based price on carbon is the least disruptive way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Environment committee  It's certainly one way. It's a way that is less disruptive to the economy and it's more transparent than other ways.

Environment committee  Yes.

Environment committee  I cannot speak for each and every one of these measures, but we have taken into consideration the policies that had been announced as of September 2018. I cannot determine whether we have taken into consideration all of the potential measures under the strategic innovation fund, because some of these measures are specific measures and specific investments still have to be made.