Finance committee  No, that's great, Shawn. I apologize if I ran long a bit earlier. Mindful of time, I would only point out that with regard to these planning techniques, we work with the Canada Revenue Agency. We understand the prevalence of surplus-stripping transactions. We've looked at that.

Finance committee  Thank you for the question. I think certainly the intergenerational transfer rules in Quebec as well as precedence in the United States and elsewhere have informed our thinking on the matter. It is, as I said, an important topic, sufficiently important, of course, to have made it into the Minister of Finance's mandate letter.

Finance committee  Thank you for that question. It's a good one. It's a good illustration of a point that Shawn was making earlier, that these are hard lines to draw and have to be done with careful thought, being mindful of real business transactions and what really happens when a business is transferred.

Finance committee  Thank you for that question, Mr. Chair. I, of course, can't speak to the government's intentions about what fixes it might wish to do or anything like that. I can point to the fact that addressing this sort of intergenerational transfer is in the Minister of Finance's mandate letter.

Finance committee  Thank you. I'd like to build upon what my colleague Shawn has already said about the context of the anti-surplus-stripping rules in section 84.1 and the intended purpose of the proposed amendment in Bill C-208, and then discuss how it would apply, looking at the specific legislative proposal.

Finance committee  Thank you for the question. I'll let my colleague Maude Lavoie discuss the statistics on the uptick for the rent subsidy. You're absolutely correct. The rent subsidy currently, that is, before the application of Bill C-14, requires an amount to have been paid, and then the subsidy is based upon rent that has been paid, similar to the earlier discussion of the wage subsidy.

Finance committee  I don't have those at my fingertips right now. I don't know if my colleague, Maude, has that with us. I simply don't have it with me, as it is not directly related to the amendments in Bill C-14.

Finance committee  Thank you for the question. The administration of the wage subsidy and the investigation of compliance related to it is the responsibility of the Canada Revenue Agency. The Department of Finance works on policy, preparing legislation, and the design and implementation of the wage subsidy and other income tax matters.

Finance committee  Just to clarify, the bill currently—and this was announced in the budget—would qualify certain plug-in hybrids for the accelerated capital cost allowance measure, provided they have a battery capacity of 15 kilowatt hours. This amendment would not introduce plug-in hybrids as a class of vehicle that could qualify for the measure.

Finance committee  It changes the pension adjustments that are reflected on your—

Finance committee  It doesn't change the enhanced Canada pension plan contributions, no.

Finance committee  This amendment is largely technical in nature. Where you have a defined benefit or a pension with a registered pension plan that contains a defined benefit formula that's integrated with the Canada pension plan benefits, it allows for the proper pension adjustment to be reflected on an employee's T4.

Finance committee  To be clear, this measure vis-à-vis the financial institution doesn't remove joint and several liability for the financial institution where business is being carried on in the tax-free savings account. Rather, it limits the joint and several liability of the financial institution for tax arising as a consequence of carrying on a business in a tax-free savings account to the amount of property in the tax-free savings account.

Finance committee  There is a requirement that it be for a first-time homebuyer. The second measure provides that if you meet conditions, individuals who experience a breakdown of a marriage are able to participate in the homebuyers' plan even if they don't meet this first-time homebuyer plan requirement.

Finance committee  I don't have any information on the number of businesses in total, although the change was put forward in response to a number of stakeholder communications that have come into the department. It's of importance to a number of stakeholders who sent in submissions that this change ought to be made, and not of largely academic impact.