Finance committee  I'm Brian Ernewein, the general director of the Tax Policy Branch at Finance Canada.

Finance committee  Yes, we do.

Finance committee  I'm not sure. I think we certainly learned from experience and ended up doing a better job on some of the analysis than when we first started these. But since they have been done, I think they've been done well enough, and presumably they are getting better.

Finance committee  Probably not.

Finance committee  I can't speak to the number itself, but the 2007 budget included an incentive for provinces to reduce their capital taxes by providing a limited period of time during which essentially the tax value or the value of the elimination of the provincial capital tax to the federal government, that is through the elimination of an otherwise deductible cost, would be made up to the provinces.

Finance committee  Their mandate is to submit their report to the minister by December 1 of this year.

Finance committee  Their work is well under way, but I don't think they've mapped out all of their plans for meetings and research at this stage. They're going to be spending at least the next few months engaged in that, to come to views on the contents of their report. It's also not for us to determine for them what they're to do.

Finance committee  In terms of the work they're undertaking to do, they issued a consultation paper in April, which is intended to be the prompt for discussions with the--

Finance committee  Part of the stated mandate of the panel is to build on the proposals put forward in last year's budget and to recommend other measures to improve the competitiveness and fairness of Canada's tax system. So the competitiveness as well as fairness will be considerations that the panel would be expected to take into account in recommending any changes.

Finance committee  I have to challenge the premise of the question, which is that Canada's tax system, including the 2007 measures, didn't take competitiveness into account. I believe that last year's measures in extending the scope of our exemption system, not just to treaty countries but also to countries with which we sign information exchange agreements, will help to bolster competitiveness.

Finance committee  Thank you, Chair. My name is Brian Ernewein, and I'm the general director of the tax policy branch at the Department of Finance. As we understand it, we were asked to attend today to speak about the two panels that were set up and for which provision was made in the supplementary budget estimates.

International Trade committee  Perhaps I can help. If the pagination in the version before members of this committee is the same as mine--that is, the bill as passed by the Senate--page 21 in annex 2 has schedule II, schedule VI. What this doing in clause 4 is seeking approval to add schedule VI to the Canada-U.S. treaty implementation act.

International Trade committee  As I said earlier, as a general matter, the tax changes or the effects of changes or of signing of new tax treaties is not generally costed as an independent matter. When there's a change in our treaty policy that has a material fiscal implication, it is costed. That was the case with the elimination of arm's-length interest and the elimination in the Canada-U.S. treaty of non-arm's-length interest, and that was costed.

International Trade committee  You're correct, there hasn't been. As I said, the only item that has been specifically costed is the elimination of interest, of the withholding of tax on arm's-length and non-arm's-length interest. You're also right, though, that there are other measures that will help taxpayers.

International Trade committee  Thank you, Chair. I doubted that I had standing during the debate on a motion, but I wanted to make the point that we did provide the numbers. They're part of the 2007 budget plan. I've given them here today. The honourable member apparently isn't satisfied and would like them to have been for years further out.