Finance committee  Quebec's demand is that the transmission and distribution profits of Hydro-Québec should be moved to the business income tax base in the same way that the profits from Ontario's Hydro One are treated.

Finance committee  I have just said that the policy is that we take the remitted profits of the full corporation, and Hydro-Québec is one corporation.

Finance committee  I do know they report their figures separately. I am aware of that. Other crown corporations that are engaged in both hydroelectric generation and in transmission and distribution do not have the same degree of detail as Hydro-Québec.

Finance committee  Let me clarify what payments are being set out in part 6 of the bill. They are simply payments that make sure the total major transfers to provinces are at least as high as they were in 2009-10 and 2010-11. In other words, we compared the equalization amounts of the Canada health

Finance committee  Thank you.

Finance committee  One question was left over from the last session. I was asked the number of crown corporations that were involved in hydro generation.

Finance committee  I just want to respond to a question that I wasn't able to respond to at the last session. Someone asked me the number of crown corporations that were involved in the generation of hydroelectricity. There are eight: Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro, New Brunswick Power, Hydro-Qu

Finance committee  I don't have the exact number of companies. I don't have that information with me, and I'm not going to try to speculate. We're talking about no more than twenty, but I think it's fewer than that. As part of the multilateral discussions we're having with provinces, we're asking

Finance committee  No, but I certainly would be able to provide it if I had the right piece of paper with me. I just don't have that right piece of paper with me. I'm sorry.

Finance committee  I certainly can.

Finance committee  This story is becoming a little more complex with each and every moment. What I talked about was that the equalization program takes into account the remitted profits of any corporation that's involved in hydroelectricity generation in the natural resource base. The profits of a

Finance committee  Certainly given the policy we have right now, if you merged Ontario Power Generation and Hydro One you would have to look at how that would fit into the program. The policy is that you take the entire remitted profits of any crown corporation engaged in hydro generation.

Finance committee  I'm certainly not an expert in corporate tax law, so I'm not going to touch that side of the question. All I can say is that the information we have makes it difficult to be able to isolate just those profits from the exploitation of natural resources for all of the crown corpora

Finance committee  I'm not aware if there's anybody from the tax policy branch who would be able to answer the first part of your question.

Finance committee  No.