Finance committee  I would tend to agree. As a first and upfront caveat, Canada has a smarter system of taxing capital gains than the U.S. does. We have a fairly clean and simple model, relative to the complex multi-rate U.S. system that has a number of classes, a number of holding periods. So I like the Canadian system as a model, but I would certainly agree that the rate is too high, especially given that there remain, for instance, accumulated inflationary gains present in taxable gains.

Finance committee  Mr. Chairman, yes. Absolutely.

Finance committee  Thank you. Those are ideal questions. On GST room, the benefit to the consumer would depend on the province you are in and how much of the available room a province chooses to take up. If you're in Ontario, with a relatively rich tax base, you might find that the province will choose to take up less than other provinces with weaker tax bases.

Finance committee  It's intriguing in that way. No, Alberta does not need the revenue. It would benefit, but to what extent the province would benefit would depend on what else happened in other fiscal envelopes.

Finance committee  Absolutely. First of all, you wouldn't be exposed to capital gains tax unless there was a disposition or a deemed disposition, so you would be talking about the proceeds of a disposition rather than the business asset or the property itself. You would also need a one-time pop in contribution room generated by the capital gains.

Finance committee  Mr. Chairman, thank you, and thanks to the committee for inviting comment on Canada's place in a competitive world. I'm delighted to be back in front of the committee and delighted to see some familiar faces, and some new ones as well. I am very happy to be here. Canada's competitiveness has been a dominant theme in the C.D.