Finance committee  Wally, that sounds like something that would just please you.

Finance committee  Yes, the Canada Revenue Agency has obviously been aware of these provisions for some time, and they've geared up for them. Over the last couple of budgets, they have been allocated additional funds for the administration of the international tax system, and international tax comp

Finance committee  Well, the bill is a combination, as I mentioned, of a couple of proposals. You started off with the 1999 budget, in which we announced--we being the government of the day--the changes dealing with FIEs and NRTs. That budget did not give details of what those changes would be. It'

Finance committee  Thank you very much.

Finance committee  That one I can handle a little more quickly because I recall the particular circumstances. The Tax Court of Canada, in a case called Otineka--the name's much longer than that, but it goes by the short name of Otineka--in 1994, came to the conclusion that a municipality, for the

Finance committee  As we mentioned, a large part of this bill has to do with various technical amendments that were introduced to the Income Tax Act. As a result, it's going to take me a moment to refresh my memory as to which one of these very many amendments--

Finance committee  We don't have any specific number, simply because it's hard to place a number on what isn't there. In the lead-up to the 1999 budget, tax avoidance through the use of non-resident trusts and foreign investment entities was becoming more and more prevalent and public. People were

Finance committee  Again, it is very difficult to come up with a number on this, and I'll give you an example of why. We're starting off with a period of some eight years ago, with the lead-up to the 1999 budget. The government was seeing a problem becoming prevalent in those days. These measures

Finance committee  It went into limbo, and it wasn't clear what was going to happen with it at that point. The intent to proceed with the measures was re-established by the government of the day in 2005 with the July 18 release of further draft legislation incorporating these measures.

Finance committee  With the announcement by the Minister of Finance in November of last year that these measures would be reintroduced in this bill, but effective for 2007, the Canada Revenue Agency and taxpayers are operating on the basis that these proposals may very well become law, and if you d

Finance committee  Sure. These proposals deal with measures that were originally announced quite a while ago, in the 1999 budget. Drafts were released over the years--in 2000 and in 2001-02. In 2003, they were tabled as a notice of ways and means motion, and again in draft legislation in 2005, even

Finance committee  That ways and means motion fell with the prorogation of the government at that time and was not re-introduced. Subsequent to that there was another release in draft. So right now the operative document that people are looking at is effectively the 1985 draft, followed by this bil