Finance committee  Well, the first part I couldn't disagree with; it's when you said that it would be in a tax-free savings account that I would begin to disagree. The point is the inequity of the plan across the Canadian population. As well, in terms of saying that it would give people a chance

Finance committee  I'm well aware of that, yes.

Finance committee  Perhaps not as important as you think it is. I—

Finance committee  I think there are lots of ways of doing that, if that's your goal. I don't think the TFSA measure does that at all.

Finance committee  I think the university that employs me sometimes does that and sometimes does not.

Finance committee  I would say it's not a priority of mine for the government, no.

Finance committee  The focus of our research has not made that comparison. Our major concern is the fact that, to go back decades, we have had in the Canadian tax system a fundamental principle that a buck is a buck, where a dollar of wealth or income was to be taxed regardless of its source.

Finance committee  First of all, you're making assumptions about me that I don't think are necessary for this discussion.

Finance committee  How am I balancing my research? I'm looking at the impact on the average Canadian of an extremely large tax expenditure that has not come under adequate scrutiny.

Finance committee  Yes, that's what the U.K. experience showed, and there have been other mentions this morning that a lot of it is existing money that is moved from places where tax would be collected on it to a place where a tax will not be collected on it.

Finance committee  I wouldn't say “no new” but not as much as one might hope.

Finance committee  I am.

Finance committee  I think it's important that people can save, but there is a lot of conflicting research on the effectiveness of tax-assisted savings incentives for certain individuals. There is also a point at which saving should not be incentivized any further, because spending has a very posit

Finance committee  Yes, but it's also coming out of the public treasury and is not going into a distributive mechanism that can benefit other Canadians at the same time.

Finance committee  Correct, if that's your goal.