Finance committee  Thank you very much for inviting this discussion. I will acknowledge that I learned much of this through MMT. The basics of what I described don't actually require MMT. A lot of it is just a straight-up basic Keynesian understanding of how the monetary system works. When I was first exposed to the ideas of MMT, which I found shocking, I wanted to confirm whether this is how Canada's monetary system works.

Finance committee  It's incredibly important. These tax havens are used by the wealthiest of the wealthiest of the wealthiest. This is not an instrument that's available to you or me. The very use of it is automatically raising questions about why this is being done. This is implicated in issues with what's called “base erosion and profit shifting”, meaning that companies are able to move profits to offshore low-tax havens even though the profit-making work is actually happening here.

Finance committee  I think it's incredibly misguided not to have these as part of what I call the “fiscal tool kit”. I voiced some disagreement from Mr. Wudrick and Mr. Moody, but I will echo their call for a budget. I know that one is coming, but I agree that it's unacceptable that we've been two years without a budget.

Finance committee  Yes. First of all, I spent eight years getting it, so I'm going to correct you: It's “Dr.” Cochrane. As I said in my presentation, the fact that the government has access to unlimited financial resources doesn't mean spending is unlimited, because those financial resources have effects in the material economy.

Finance committee  Thank you kindly for having Canadians for Tax Fairness comment on this bill. If I'm not mistaken, members of every party, in the course of speaking to Bill C-14, expressed support for tax fairness. That's music to the ears of our organization. Now we just need to see some real action.