Finance committee  Thanks, Mr. Chair. My questions will be for Mortgage Professionals Canada. Mr. Taylor and Mr. Wolfe, you can decide between you who would like to answer. I had to step out for another meeting briefly, so I apologize in advance if I repeat some questions you've already had. No doubt my colleague Mr.

Finance committee  That leads to my other two questions. The first is in regard to the problem I raised in my initial question. I see the possibility that this policy could actually compound that problem. When we talk about new builds, 10% would be the shared portion from the government. I don't know about you, but if I were a builder, I might look at that and say, “That could be fun,” and maybe prices would go up a little bit as a result.

Finance committee  No? Okay.

Finance committee  Okay.

Finance committee  Right.

Finance committee  Yes, whether the take-up will actually....

Finance committee  Let's say that I get to the last quarter of the year, and I realize it's going to be tough to make this target for the year because there hasn't been enough demand for electric vehicles. What do I do? Do I tell any consumer who's looking to buy a vehicle from me that they can't buy gasoline until the next year?

Finance committee  So, 25% of the cars sold in Canada would have to be electric. That would be at the dealer level, then?

Finance committee  Okay. I guess the question that would then beg is, if I'm a car dealer, would this be an annual target, a monthly target? What would it be?

Finance committee  How else would it work then?

Finance committee  Sure, but we still go back to the point that not all cars that are sold here in Canada are manufactured here, so we wouldn't really be at 25%, I guess, unless you were doing it at the dealer level. I'm still not sure how that would look. At the end of the day, maybe a lot of the manufacturers would just say, “You know what?

Finance committee  No, but we have no control over cars manufactured elsewhere, right? If they just say they're going to move their operations and go into the States, or wherever else maybe doesn't have that target, suddenly we have done that, right?

Finance committee  Thanks. I want to go back to you, Mr. Marshall, on the suggestion you made about legislating electric cars. You had indicated the 25% was the initial percentage, and then ultimately trying to get to 100%. I guess I'm still a little unclear on exactly what you're proposing there as well, so I'm looking for some clarity.

Finance committee  Sure. I may be able to get back to you in a second, but I want to give Dr. Lee a chance to weigh in on this one as well. I know that when you were being interviewed following the budget, Dr. Lee, you said: It confirmed my worst expectations. My biggest criticism of this budget is the criticism I've had with this government running deficits, big deficits when the economy has been going flat out, meaning it's doing very well...this is the equivalent of pouring gasoline on a fire.

Finance committee  Thanks. I want to acknowledge Jan Waterous, who's a constituent of mine. I want to thank you for standing up and being the “they”. The project you're putting forward is very ambitious, one that's going to make a big difference for residents and visitors alike, and for the environment as well.