Finance committee  Since I'm also of Irish descent, I like one of your suggestions.

Finance committee  Other European countries receive subsidies as well, and the difference with Ireland is that they did the reduction of corporate taxes, and in our view, this drove a significantly higher growth than their counterparts.

Finance committee  We'd be pleased, because we think HST is one of the things that would really move forward in terms of the simplification of the system. One of the resistances you'll meet for the provinces taking it on is obviously a concern for loss of revenue. There are various ways to recover

Finance committee  We use the term “patchwork quilt of complex regulation”. The tax act has doubled, or tripled, or quadrupled in size since I took my CA. I'm glad I don't have to do it again. Our first recommendation, which is actually the last recommendation in our study, is to move to a compre

Finance committee  We have to bring it down to a base.

Finance committee  I appreciate that. We did indicate we're trying to lessen the proliferation of imbalances across the system. We recognize there have to be some selective incentives in particular areas, but we're just pointing out that the tax act has become so thick, and year after year of budge

Finance committee  I think it comes from doing a comprehensive review, and starting from almost ground zero, and then selectively identifying the areas that you want to incent. If we take the CCA classes, for example, right now, embedded in the tax act there are something like 45 CCA classes. You

Finance committee  It's interesting that Mr. Dykstra brought up the issue of the affordability of consumption taxes to lower-income earners. Just as you indicated that possibly we shouldn't confuse one objective with another, we have proposed that the GST should not be reduced further. If there i

Finance committee  One of the themes running through our entire submission was simplification, which is why we called for the harmonized sales tax, the group tax reporting, and a review of the tax system. The tax act is huge now, and it's got to be looked at. In terms of environment, I think a stu

Finance committee  In our brief, we urged the government to implement mechanisms that support Canadian economic value creators. Canada needs the champions that some of the SR and ED credits, the R and D credits, which is a good system, are promoting. We look at Research in Motion as a prime example

Finance committee  We're saying, as we're looking at where we're spending money, spending on infrastructure that makes Canada more competitive is a good thing. Then when we start thinking about infrastructure, we think about R and D, we think about training, which is one of the reasons we've put fo

Finance committee  I don't want to get too much into details, but there's actually an interpretation bulletin that specifies that certain types of training are deductible in the current year, and other types, interestingly enough, that are longer term are considered to be of a capital nature, and t

Finance committee  Absolutely.

Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  One-third of the program spending relates to old age security and health care, something we know is going to increase as the population ages. That should provide us with the incentive to find the money through various means, and one of the ways we were suggesting was to pay down