Significant developments in Canadian taxation;

              Significant Developments in Canadian Taxation
by RUSSELL E. MCKAY Principal, Deloitte, Plender, Haskins & Sells, Toronto
Presented before the Haskins & Sells Annual Tax Conference, Washington, D.C.—October 1962
1962 TO DATE has either been a particularly good year or a particularly bad year in Canada in so far as significant taxation developments are concerned.
If one is of the view that few developments are desirable, then 1962 has been a good year; if, however, one is of the view there is always room for improvement in taxing statutes, and this would appear to be the more appropriate view, then 1962 has been a par­ticularly
bad year.
Before getting into the detail, I propose to describe the procedure by which Canadian taxing statutes are amended. My purpose for doing this is two-fold: firstly, to give you an opportunity to compare the procedure with that in the United States, and secondly, it will make some of my later comments more meaningful.
I will not burden you with the steps employed in the various Governmental Departments' facilitating a pronouncement to the Pub­lic,
but rather will start at the point where those steps have been completed.
Around April of each year, there is considerable anxiety in Canada while the Budget Speech is awaited. The main purpose of the Budget Speech is to enable the Minister of Finance to present the financial position of the Government and to propose any changes in the tax rates deemed necessary to sustain that financial position. It includes a comprehensive survey of the financial and economic state of the nation and is used frequently as the vehicle for making announcements affecting government financial or economic policy. It sums up the position for the last fiscal year and provides a forecast of the probable position in the year ahead.
To facilitate study by the Committee of Ways and Means, it being a policy that all money bills are considered in Committee before being enacted into law, the tax changes proposed in the Budget Speech are submitted in resolution form. There is a separate resolu­tion
for each taxing act to be amended, with the individual para­graphs
of the resolution detailing the proposed changes. They do
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