Finance committee  Thanks very much, Mr. Chairman. You have a copy of our pre-budget submission. It recommends four major tax measures that we think would help to encourage investment in productive assets in research and development, new machinery and equipment, new technology, and workplace train

Finance committee  Yes. It's a very important measure.

Finance committee  I think if you look at a particular sector or set of regulations, such as new regulations for food product safety, companies have to make investments in new monitoring systems, inspection systems, IT systems. Many of these don't necessarily have—

Finance committee  Not if they're investments in equipment, where it's not necessarily clear that there would be a tax deduction. There would be a—

Finance committee  Not if it's an investment in a new set of equipment or technology where you have to depreciate that over a period of time.

Finance committee  I really can't say. We haven't done that calculation, but I think right now for companies—and many of them are really having a hard time surviving—any increase in payroll taxes, any increase in tax costs that would be borne by this sector, is going to have a negative impact on no

Finance committee  If you look at the progress that manufacturers have made already—and they've achieved a 9% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions since 1990—it's all been based on the investments they've been making in new technology and capital turnover. That's why our recommendations, particula

Finance committee  If you're looking at cashflow driving investment in R and D and in machinery and equipment--and there's a very close relationship--the most effective tax measure would actually be a refundable tax credit.

Finance committee  For R and D, but also for investment in new technology.

Finance committee  However, that comes at a cost. The accelerated cost allowance, right now, has been a very fundamental measure in boosting investment in manufacturing above what it would be. It would be our recommendation to continue that accelerated CCA.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Ladies and gentlemen, I want begin by thanking you for the invitation to come and talk about this bill. I'd like to specifically address the issue of the two-year write-off for manufacturing and processing of machinery and equipment investments that the bi

Finance committee  About 10,000.

Finance committee  I can, and there are a lot of examples. I mentioned Aberfoyle Metal Treaters, which put in a new heat treating centre and is getting the benefit of the two-year write-off to do that. Harry Hall runs the operation based in Aberfoyle. As a result of that, it is now able to do heat

Finance committee  It gives them less money to make investments in new product development or new technologies or training their employees. One of the things we found in some of the analyses, which I think made a difference in our discussions with the finance minister's view of this, if not Financ

Finance committee  Any increase in cost is going to have an impact on the amount of money that companies have to invest, so, frankly, yes, it does. One of our recommendations, though, is to take a look at the EI system. I think you could make a very strong argument that a tax credit could be intr