Finance committee  I would say that to the extent that we had more capital because we controlled our government costs better and had lower taxation—we have double taxation on dividends today in Canada—and had as a result more investment capital, the richer, in the long term, Canada would become.

Finance committee  I gave you a number of examples before: the City of Montreal amalgamation, school taxes.... It just goes on and on. As my friend the Premier of Quebec said, “I will not buy votes when I'm no longer in politics.” I think this is a terrible thing. I also believe that to the extent

Finance committee  I don't believe there is such a thing, as long as we have politics.

Finance committee  I don't know the exact extent of it, and I don't think anybody really knows the exact extent of the private use of illegal tax shelters. I firmly believe that it's irrelevant. We have to stop it to the extent that we can. We have to better educate our people in the revenue depa

Finance committee  And I agree with that fully.

Finance committee  I think what we have to stop is the black market in Canada and the evasion of taxes in it.

Finance committee  In this country in the last 30 years we have lost half our manufacturing already, mainly as the result of the rise of the Canadian dollar. And it is very difficult today to attract manufacturing investment when you don't know where currency is going to be. So I would say we shoul

Finance committee  Well, I think it's again a question of the Canadian dollar. To the extent that our Canadian dollar goes to $1.50 U.S., we will still close more. It is one of the very important problems. We have 80% of our trade with the United States. They're beggaring us by bringing their dolla

Finance committee  There have been many cases where you have had amnesty after amnesty. I believe that in the case of any individual, if you're going to give amnesty at a lower rate, something should still be payable. They shouldn't get away with it 100%. Secondly, I believe if that amnesty is mi

Finance committee  If it's addressed to me, I would say yes and no. But for very wealthy individuals, the answer would probably be no because to the extent they want to get this benefit, they would leave and pay off their capital gains at this time or give their money to a charitable foundation or

Finance committee  I totally agree; I don't believe you want to do that. What you want to make sure is that the Canadian banks are operating in a legitimate manner and that they do not do this to hide criminal activity. To come back on the previous item, I do believe very strongly that many tax ad

Finance committee  We strictly discourage our clients from going to tax havens, because we have seen lives wrecked many times. We have seen people who have done this, on legal advice from supposedly good lawyers, and been caught. Actually two of them committed suicide. I do not believe that price j

Finance committee  What I said before is that I do not believe in tax evasion. I will not deal with any client who comes to me with a proposition like that, and I do not want to know anything about any money in that category. I feel that these people should be prosecuted and that the tax departme

Finance committee  I think capital gains tax obviously plays a role in how people invest. On the other hand, to the extent that you deal with stocks or other assets that pay income, that income is declared every year on your return and is taxed to the extent that it's taxable. A problem that arises

Finance committee  As I tried to tell you before, if I get 4.5% in interest per year, I get absolutely no return after tax and after inflation. By and large, I believe most people are forced to go for investing on the basis of trying to obtain capital gains to get a real return on an investment.