Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would say there is a tradition of budget secrecy, of course, relating to the preparation of budget measures, and that's considered to be most acute with respect to tax measures. The government obviously has to be concerned about speculation concerning potential tax measures, particularly those that would affect companies, financial markets, and so on.

Finance committee  Yes, that's correct. It was a 25% tax credit. The maximum credit per space is $10,000. In other words, $40,000 was the maximum amount of eligible expenses.

Finance committee  But I would just note that it covers a range of expenses. It covers capital costs—the cost of the building and furniture, equipment, materials—as well as—

Finance committee  Mr. Chairman, I guess I could say that the budget proposes significant new investment. The budget announced that an additional $7 billion will be invested over 10 years, starting in 2018-19, to support and create more quality, affordable child care spaces across the country. The aim will be to increase the number of spaces for low- and modest-income families by supporting up to 40,000 new subsidized child care spaces and to help make it more affordable for parents to return to work.

Finance committee  Mr. Chairman, I would just note that the budget, as the honourable member has indicated, proposes to eliminate an additional deduction for gifts of medicines made by companies out of their inventory of medicine. It's important to note that companies will continue to have access to the general charitable deduction that's available to all companies that make charitable gifts.

Finance committee  Well, I can't say—

Finance committee  This data only applies to the additional deduction. It's possible that companies may have been making the donations, and not claiming the—

Finance committee  That's correct, Mr. Chairman. It's estimated to raise about $10 million per year.

Finance committee  No, that's correct. The measure in question is the tax exemption that applies to insurers who insure farming or fishing property. They have to have at least 20% of their premium income from those policy segments.

Finance committee  That's correct.

Finance committee  This tax exemption, which is a somewhat unusual measure, in the sense that it's an exemption for insurance companies who provide a particular line of insurance, was introduced in 1954 in an effort to encourage the provision of insurance in what was seen to be an under-serviced market, that for farming and fishing property and businesses.

Finance committee  Mr. Chairman, in the past five years the exemption has benefited on average about 40 insurance companies each year.

Finance committee  That's correct, Mr. Chair.

Finance committee  Yes, Mr. Chairman. I just want to add to my colleague's remarks. Without making any guarantees about how things will proceed this year, it has been the practice in recent years that tax measures contained in the second budget implementation act, as Mr. McGowan alluded to, are released by the government in draft form, particularly given the complexity involved in these types of measures, to give affected parties—stakeholders, industries, and so on—the opportunity to comment on the proposed legislation before it is introduced in Parliament.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just so that you understand, the measure that the honourable member is referring to is not contained in this bill. I would appreciate your view on whether that should be a topic for—