I will lead off with an explanation of part 2. My name is Carlos Achadinha. I'm the senior director responsible for GST policy matters—goods and services tax and harmonized sales tax matters. This particular section, part 2, covers a couple of modest and minor enhancement amendments that are included in the budget with respect to the application of the GST.

Basically, there are four measures in this bill with respect to the GST. Three are related to health measures. They are basically expanding the existing health measures currently under the GST. There's relief for basic health care services, so you don't pay tax on basic health care services. There are basically three additions to that type of relief.

The very first one is at clauses 76, 78 and 79. GST relief is provided to supplies and importation of human ova and on importations of in vitro embryos. This is intended to assist people who are increasingly turning to assisted human reproduction to help build their families; so for people who are suffering from certain infertility issues, this is a means to help them deal with that sort of issue. This provides relief for acquisitions of those particular materials.

The second measure deals with various foot care products. There is currently an exemption for various foot care products—for example, controlled ankle movement walkers, heel braces and compression anti-embolic stockings. These materials are currently exempt when they are basically purchased on the order of a physician. What we're doing now is expanding that to allow them also to be purchased on the order of a licensed chiropodist or a podiatrist. These are other health practitioners who are really very much whom people see when they have to deal with these foot issues. This is just an expansion of what is an existing relief.

The third measure in the health area is providing explicit relief for what we refer to now as multi-disciplinary health care services. Basically this is a measure intended to deal with rehabilitation programs where you may have different health care practitioners come together to provide you with one service, a rehabilitation service. If these were all provided separately, there would be an exemption, but it's not clear that when they are provided together as a single service there is explicit relief for this particular measure in the act. This provides explicit relief for those multi-disciplinary health care services.

The fourth measure is just a consequential measure. There has been discussion here with respect to the income tax expanded threshold for business deductions for the zero-emission vehicles. Under the GST, businesses are entitled to recover their tax paid on inputs they use for business purposes. Consequential to the changes in the deduction threshold in the Income Tax Act going from $30,000 to $55,000 for zero-emission vehicles, there will be an increase in what you can claim for input tax credits to that same threshold.

That covers very quickly the GST modifications.

Transcript

Discussions (0)