Finance committee  I think in that case specifically, the tax system was sufficiently flawed in terms of how it was structured at the time and how it was laid out. I don't think we should perpetuate a system that's not particularly neutral because that is what happened in the past. I think what nee

Finance committee  I think that speaks to the need for gradual implementation of tax changes, and that stakeholders are consulted in that process as well. I don't know the numbers on just how many businesses are part of this. What is, say, the level of passive income that's part of this? Do we cont

Finance committee  Good afternoon Chair, Vice-Chair, and committee members. Thank you for inviting me to speak today as part of the study of Bill C-74. As requested, I will focus my remarks on part 1 of Bill C-74, more particularly on the section pertaining to the small business tax rate and divi

Transport committee  Absolutely, as we've discussed, it really comes down to working with municipalities and provinces to make sure that you're funding plans and well-thought-out plans so that those municipalities and subnational jurisdictions overall can get the best bang for their buck, including i

Transport committee  l would also argue, though, that we don't have a long history of these contracts, and of these contracts being taken to completion. While there are examples of ones that have been shown to be quite successful, there are also other examples of ones that have not been successful, n

Transport committee  I'd be happy to.

Transport committee  Absolutely.

Transport committee  That's right, and that—

Transport committee  Of course. I think the role that the federal government can play is helping to build capacity to make sure that the planning framework is done well and that those investments will benefit those municipalities as much as they possibly can.

Transport committee  Certainly private sector involvement has been found to benefit public sector investment in both being on time and on budget. I would say that on average it's slightly better. But at the end of the day, the benefits are relatively small and the jury is still out on the financing c

Transport committee  Ultimately I think it really comes down to the increased likelihood—I would say not dramatically increased, but the increased likelihood—of being on time and on budget with PPPs, offset in part by the higher financing costs. I think it's those two together. When it comes to broa

Transport committee  Starting with your second point, if that's okay, working with municipalities to increase capacity in terms of their infrastructure investments and asset allocation is superb, and the more stable and predictable the funding source is for infrastructure or for any transfer is incre

Transport committee  When it comes to the infrastructure bank overall, while I agree that small and rural communities may not benefit as much as larger communities, I think the traditional mechanisms for funding infrastructure are still going to be there. I still think that's going to be a considerat

Transport committee  On the topic of public-private partnerships, in the context of the Canada Infrastructure Bank, these are certainly not mutually exclusive. One is a mechanism for designing, building, operating, maintaining, and financing, so they're not necessarily mutually exclusive. The Canada

Transport committee  As the folks at the PBO mentioned, I think there are two parts to that. The first part is that not as much money has flowed as was expected at the time of budget 2016. The second is that the economy wasn't at the same stage of the business cycle as it was at the time of budget