Finance committee  I defer. That was fine.

Finance committee  I'd echo that. When payroll taxes are really tied closely to the benefit that's received through them, that tie can make a big difference in how the benefit affects people's behaviour. When I have Canada Pension Plan premiums deducted from my paycheque, I realize that I'll get a

Finance committee  I'll start with a quick reaction. I like the approach that's been followed recently of taking EI off-budget and making it a self-funded program, which would be harder to do if it were funded through the GST.

Finance committee  I'll just reiterate that. Taxing estates is something legitimate to discuss. People are going to have different opinions on that, but that discussion should be made in the context of realizing that we have deemed realization at death, which, as Jack said, goes part of the way the

Finance committee  Let me jump in briefly. Can I start for a bit, Jack, and then I'll pass it over to you?

Finance committee  In B.C. I can say that has been a concern of late. There have been some concerns raised by people around the Prince George area in northern B.C. for this exact reason. They're concerned about the fact that they have to drive around more than perhaps I do in Vancouver. It was not

Finance committee  I'll go first with the easy one. It's the retail sales tax and the GST thing. There are precedents for how to do it within Canada, and I think there are big gains to be had for doing so.

Finance committee  I'll just echo that. I notice that one big difference between Canada and the U.S. is the lack of deductibility for mortgage interest. I think we made the right choice in Canada. In the U.S., there was a commission last year that recommended ways to try to remove that tax pref

Finance committee  No, I'm fine.

Finance committee  Yes, I can see it, although it depends maybe upon what city you're in. In Vancouver, the problem is getting on a bus; the problem isn't empty buses going around, I can tell you for sure. In general, the argument I was trying to make is that on the spending side it is possible to

Finance committee  Thank you for the question. I haven't seen a study of Sweden in particular, but I was just reviewing a study of Finland, which also has a dual income tax system, and it found that there was a gain for those who were heavy recipients of capital income within Finland and also som

Finance committee  Thank you for the question. I will pick up the last point that you made first. I think you're right that there might be some differences in a place like Canada, where there's a lot more bilateral investment with a larger partner, than in Sweden, where it's more of a multilatera

Finance committee  Sure, I'll defer to Jack.

Finance committee  Let me address that with a brief point. One thing that's really interesting is that there has been a rise in income inequality in Canada over the past 25 years, but a lot of that is driven not by changes in capital income but by changes in earned income. People at the very top

Finance committee  There are two or three points. For the country as a whole, if you want to have more business investment--better investment, better job creation--one way to do it is to make sure Canada is an attractive location for investment dollars. One way to do that is to make sure we have a