Finance committee  It's not that. The issue was trusts at one point, in 2006 or 2007. However, we went back in June 2007, convinced that it wasn't a political or tax issue, and so on. It was simply a housekeeping issue. The question concerned the methodology used in that housekeeping matter. Do we

Finance committee  That's how I see the situation, and other people share that view.

Finance committee  Well, the disadvantages of the suggested amendment are all those I stated in my opening remarks. The advantages—

Finance committee  Our proposal is simply that limited partnerships and trusts be treated as companies. For tax or cooperative reasons, the real estate world currently favours trusts, such as real estate investment trusts and limited partnerships, and they do not enjoy the exemption granted to comp

Finance committee  It seems that way. When we first saw the proposed legislation, after the bill went through second reading in the House and it became public, we saw this, and the industry was frankly pretty nervous about what a prescribed mortgage is and what a prescribed entity is. We met with t

Finance committee  Absolutely.

Finance committee  There's absolutely nothing political about this. I can tell you all players in the commercial real estate industry want this.

Finance committee  No, they are not, which is why we haven't done this.

Finance committee  One is in English, and one is in French.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This afternoon I'd like to introduce some diversity to this session by restricting my remarks to the Canada Interest Act. Good afternoon. My name is Fred Carsley. I am a partner with the Montreal law firm of De Grandpré Chait and head our real estate pr