Finance committee  From our perspective, there are certainly many ways to achieve that goal, and I think the business community would be pleased if the government were to take one of those paths toward that end. The method that we prefer, that we've suggested, is to borrow from the U.S. approach, which is to allow 100% deductibility in the first year for certain types of assets.

Finance committee  Good morning. Thank you so much for seeing us this morning. We're happy to be here. We have several ideas that we wanted to share with you for the 2019 budget, of course, and for the election platforms that your respective parties will be putting together. We want to start by talking about some of the challenges that small and medium-sized firms, our members, are facing in Canada right now.

Finance committee  Thank you for the soft lob.

Finance committee  I'll be very quick. I think the dialogue would be enhanced significantly if we heard from the Minister of Finance or even the Minister of Small Business, that they now understand that these proposals will affect middle-income business owners and they are not prepared to allow that to happen.

Finance committee  I think that would be a terrific start. I also think it would be fair if we heard from the Minister of Finance or the Minister of Small Business and they said that, if there are instances raised with them where the rate of taxation on small business would be higher than that of other Canadians, they're not going to let that happen.

Finance committee  I meant to add at the beginning that we have to look at these changes in the context of the larger picture that we're facing in Canada right now. We are starting to see some bright spots in the economy, and I'm happy about that. I think that a lot has been done over the years to make that happen, but we have to remember that we just announced an increase in employment insurance premiums a couple of weeks ago.

Finance committee  Thank you, Toby, for your answer. I agree that this is an area in need of review. It's a tax fairness issue that should concern the committee. There are several ways in which online players, particularly multinational online players based outside of Canada, have an advantage over domestic market players.

Finance committee  The implications of these proposed changes are huge and far-reaching. The income-sprinkling provisions in particular are a source of much concern and anxiety on the part of business owners. While it's absolutely true, as Mr. Grewal said, that business owners will still be able to have family members employed in their business, the uncertainty that this will create, as to whether or not the CRA is going to come in and then ask them to justify how much they happen to be paying a spouse for formal and informal work in the workplace is quite considerable.

Finance committee  We haven't. I think the data we have shared, though, shows the concern over the uncertainty that this has created. We've been doing this for 46 years. When John Bulloch founded the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, it was to protect the small business corporate tax structures in Canada.

Finance committee  —and that's why we wanted to share the data, as we have.

Finance committee  Absolutely, yes. We're happy to do so.

Finance committee  The sample size, I believe, was almost 9,000 businesses, in a survey that was done over a couple of days. It was an online survey of our membership. Because many businesses aren't particularly familiar with the details of these proposed changes, we provided a two-page backgrounder, which we had passed by tax professionals to ensure that the information was accurate.

Finance committee  Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be here. You've been keeping us very busy at the Canadian Federation of Independent Business over the last few months. I also want to say a special thanks to your committee chair, who has recently become a bit of a folk hero on the part of members of CFIB for recent comments he's made in the media.

Government Operations committee  Sure.

Government Operations committee  I don't think anybody who runs a corporation is of the belief that they can control every single thing that goes on with their employees. Would that it existed. I will say that I think the challenge is both in terms of policy and then in terms of execution of that policy. Some of the things that have been pointed out are actually by Canada Post's design, so the issue is with management for not creating those processes, or perhaps with government for not creating the processes above the corporation that would provide avenues for appeal, etc.