Environment committee  That is a very good question to which there is no good answer.

Environment committee  I do not have the exact figures, but I can tell you that there are heritage properties in Canada that are undergoing restoration. So there is some activity in this area. As other MPs have noted, there are some problems with demolitions. That said, the activity level is not nil.

Environment committee  Yes. One MP also talked about Toronto's Distillery Historic District, which has been modernized.

Environment committee  That is not clear. I have to admit that we do not have a lot of data about that. As Mr. Aldag said, it is not simply property owners, but also workers and beneficiaries. Ultimately, we have to look at who the owners those buildings are who might incur those expenses.

Environment committee  That's a really good question. In some ways, there's a middle ground because, if you look at the U.S. credit and the amount of oversight that's involved, there is certification before the work is done, certification after the work is done, the possibility of inspection, and recapture of the credit.

Environment committee  I think that's a very fair statement in considering the distributional effects. To the extent that there's a positive economic benefit one wants to consider, I think you make a very good point on how that's distributed, so amongst owners, but also workers and potentially consumers.

Environment committee  Sure. We try to, as a system as a whole.

Environment committee  When we analyze tax measures, we try to take a holistic view that takes all positive benefits and costs into account.

Environment committee  Thank you for the question. What I said is that, when we compare tax measures and direct spending measures, there are always pros and cons for each. When we consider a tax measure, we assess what the benefits are, particularly as regards flexibility. In this case, individuals and companies can decide.

Environment committee  Yes. Our perspective is that those studies attribute all the economic activity to the credit. In other words, they assume that in the absence of the credit there would have been no rehabilitation of those historic properties. We don't consider that realistic. It would be tantamount to saying that there's no rehabilitation of historic properties in Canada today because we don't have a credit.

Environment committee  It's certainly an assertion. But it's my understanding that there is rehabilitation of historic properties going on today in Canada in the absence of a credit. It seems to me that the proper baseline isn't zero.

Environment committee  No. I think what I can tell you is that it's a fair question and I can bring it back to colleagues at Finance who deal specifically with the funding of programs like this, because we're not on the program side; we're on the tax side. I will do that.

Environment committee  I attribute it to the translation, because it certainly wasn't intended.

Environment committee  That's certainly the case, as far as I know.

Environment committee  It's a very good question. The way we wanted to frame it is that there are advantages and disadvantages of each approach. My sense is—and we're not experts on the spending side—that it could well be easier. One of the points we made is that if you're trying to achieve rural equity, whether it's regional or sectoral or urban, spending programs might lend themselves more easily to that.