Canada
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Canada

John Bain


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KPMG in Canada

333 Bay Street

Suite 4600

Bay Adelaide Centre

Toronto, ON M5H 2S5

Canada

Tel: +1 416 777 3894

Email: jbain1@kpmg.ca

Website: www.kpmg.com

John is a partner at KPMG in Canada based in Toronto and has more than 23 years of commodity tax experience both in Canada and the EU. He co-leads KPMG in Canada's Indirect Tax practice, leads the Greater Toronto Area Indirect Tax practice and is a member of KPMG's Global Indirect Tax steering committee. He advises a wide array of clients on the application of Canadian and global indirect taxes and is principally focused on the financial and manufacturing sectors. John began his career with KPMG in the UK, where he spent three years advising on VAT issues.

John is a former senior tax policy officer with the Department of Finance Canada, where he was responsible for GST policy and legislation for services and cross-border movement of goods. He worked for the European Commission in Belgium as VAT policy officer on issues related to the financial sector and cross-border matters. He has also worked at the Canada Revenue Agency, where he was a manager responsible for GST interpretive policy and rulings related to real property issues.

John is the chairman of the Commodity Tax Policy Committee for the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada Association, is a participant in the GST Leaders Forum, and in the past has participated in indirect tax technical advisory groups and working groups at both the OECD and WTO on cross-border issues. He is a contributor to the Toronto Financial Services Alliance and advises a number of financial sector industry associations. He speaks frequently at tax conferences and is a published author on VAT and GST-related matters.

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Danny Cisterna


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Deloitte Canada

33 Yonge Street, 2nd floor

Toronto, ON M5E 1G4

Canada


Tel: +1 416 601 6362

Email: dcisterna@deloitte.ca

Website: www.deloitte.ca

Danny is a partner with Deloitte Canada, based in the Toronto office and is the National Leader for Tax for the financial services industry. He has extensive experience in public accounting and the private sector where he spent four years with a major bank responsible for managing more than C$100 million of indirect taxes. He advises and consults with a wide array of clients on indirect taxes with particular emphasis in the financial services industry.

Danny has written for and presented at numerous Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada (CPA Canada) commodity tax symposia on matters relating to financial services and GST. He has also been a regular lecturer to several other organisations in Canada including the CPA Canada In-Depth In-Residence Course, the Canadian Life and Health Insurers Association, and the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC).

Danny is an adviser to the IBC Tax Panel on Indirect Tax matters. He is an adviser to several of Investment Funds Institute of Canada's working groups dealing with GST and Harmonised Sales Tax (HST) matters affecting the mutual funds sector. While in industry, Danny was chair of the 1996/1997 Canadian Bankers' Association Commodity Tax Sub-Committee, where his main focus was on negotiations between the industry and the federal and provincial governments on the application of HST to financial services. Danny is a past member of a technical advisory group sanctioned by the OECD with respect to the development of international guidelines on the application of value added taxes to cross-border traded services and intangibles. Danny has been a discussion leader and active participant of the GST Leaders' Forum and was the chair of the inaugural session in 2007. Danny is the past chair of CPA Canada's Commodity Tax Committee. Finally, Danny was just appointed as chair of the Tax Roundtable of the Toronto Financial Services Alliance.

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Robert Demers


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Deloitte Canada

1, Place Ville-Marie, Bureau 3000

Montreal H3B 4T9

Canada


Tel: +1 514 393 5156 (office); +1 514 983 5156 (mobile)

Mobile: +1 514 983 5156

Email: rdemers@deloitte.ca

Website: www.deloitte.com

Located in Montreal, Robert has been advising on indirect tax and Customs matters for more than 30 years. He has advised clients both across Canada and globally to better plan their transactions and identify additional exemption possibilities with government authorities. He joined Deloitte in August 1981, was promoted to partner in 1990 and has been responsible for Deloitte's Quebec indirect tax practice since 1992. He was Deloitte Canada's National Indirect Tax leader from June 2008 to June 2014.

Holding a master's degree in taxation from the University of Sherbrooke in 1982, Robert has served as chairman of the public finance and tax committee of the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal and as board president of the World Trade Centre of Montreal. He is actively involved in the Charles Bruneau Cancerology Centre Foundation, which raises funds for paediatric cancer research. Robert is a member of the Association de planification fiscale et financière (APFF) and chairs the organising committee of the APFF's consumption tax symposium.

A highly sought-after speaker, Robert has given many courses for the Ordre des comptables agréés du Québec, the Purchasing Management Association of Canada and the Université du Québec à Montréal.

He earned a bachelor degree in economics from the University of Montreal in 1980 and a certificate in law from the same university in 1992.

He was a member and chairman of the board of the Montreal World Trade Centre between 1997 and 2001, a member and chair of the finance committee of The Board of Trade from 2002 to 2008, and a member and chair of the APFF Indirect Tax Symposium organising committee from 1995 to 2012. He also served as a member of the organising committee of Centre de Cancérologie Charles Bruneau CIBC Cycling Tour from 2006 to 2012.

This is the third year in a row that Robert has been recognised in the Indirect Tax Leaders guide.

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Audrey Diamant


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PwC Canada

PwC Tower

18 York Street

Suite 2600

Toronto, ON M5J 0B2

Canada

Tel: +1 416 687 8933

Email: audrey.j.diamant@ca.pwc.com

Website: www.pwc.com/ca

Audrey Diamant is a partner in the Tax Services practice of PwC and specialises in the GST and Provincial Sales Tax (PST) as they relate to cross-border transactions, technology and telecommunications issues, and the not-for-profit sector. Audrey also provides in-depth analysis and legislative interpretation to clients on provincial retail sales tax programmes, with emphasis on the inter-provincial transfer of goods and services, end-use exemptions and special status purchasers, and advises a number of large US clients on the intricacies of carrying on business in Canada.

Audrey has practised in the commodity tax area for more than 25 years and provided advisory services to the Canadian Department of Finance during the implementation of the GST, and to the Ontario Ministry of Finance, both on software issues as well as the implementation of the Harmonised Sales Tax (HST) in Ontario. She is also a leader of the sales tax committee of the Information Technology Association of Canada (Ontario).

Audrey has held the position of co-chair/presenter (2003-2006) and chair/presenter (2007-2012) of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA) GST/HST In-Depth course, co-developed the CICA advanced course on GST/HST and Public Sector Bodies, and is a regular contributor on sales tax matters to a Canadian Tax Foundation newsletter. She is a regular speaker at the CICA Commodity Tax Symposium and Tax Executives' Institute (TEI), and is a recipient of the Normand Guerin Award for her contribution to commodity tax studies.

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Mike Firth


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PwC Canada

PwC Tower

18 York Street

Suite 2600

Toronto, ON M5J 0B2

Canada

Tel: +1 416 869 8718

Email: michael.p.firth@ca.pwc.com

Website: www.pwc.com

Mike specialises in GST as it affects the financial sector.

Mike has more than 30 years of experience in working with value added taxes such as the GST, gained in 10 years working with HM Customs and Excise in the UK in a variety of VAT roles, followed by 24 years with PwC in the UK, Canada, Australia and Barbados. Mike has specialised in the financial sector aspects of VAT since 1988.

His experience includes:

  • Developing and coordinating significant GST recovery projects for a number of populations of claimants in the financial sector;

  • Proposing and executing detailed provincial harmonised sales tax impact studies for the Canadian banking, fund management, and insurance sectors in 2008, a year before the 2009 Ontario harmonisation announcement;

  • Coordinating Canadian tax, and UK VAT and data-modelling expertise to deliver very detailed GST recovery methodologies for two major Canadian banks.

Acknowledged as a contributor to the 1994 Peterson Committee Report on the GST, Mike is a very frequent speaker and presenter on GST matters. He has presented seven papers at the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA) Symposium and was an invited witness to the House of Commons Finance Committee hearings on the 2010 federal budget, to comment on the clauses imposing several new measures on the financial sector.

In November 2011, Mike presented a paper co-written with Professor Ken Mackenzie of the University of Calgary School of Policy Study – "The GST and Financial Service: Pausing for Perspective".

Mike is the only multiple winner of the Normand Guerin award from Deloitte, for making an outstanding contribution to the study of commodity taxes.

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Janice Roper


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Deloitte Canada

2800 - 1055 Dunsmuir Street

4 Bentall Centre

Vancouver, BC V7X 1P4

Canada


Tel: +1 604 6403353

Email: jroper@deloitte.ca

Website: www.deloitte.com

Janice Roper is Deloitte Canada's National Indirect Tax Leader. Janice is located in Vancouver, British Columbia (BC) and has more than 23 years of experience in the field of indirect taxes. Her practice encompasses GST, Harmonised Sales Tax (HST), Provincial Sales Tax (PST) and Customs duties. Her experience covers a wide range of industries, including financial institutions, public sector and government, consumer business, technology, and forestry.

Janice has been involved in significant projects across all industry groups. A few examples of her assignments include assisting BC companies in transitioning back to PST; assisting clients with the implementation of HST; providing advice on organisation structuring and restructuring to minimise the incidence and magnitude of indirect taxes; and performing recovery reviews for indirect taxes, resulting in large refunds.

Janice is a member of the GST Leaders' Forum and is the co-chair and lecturer at the CPA Canada GST In-Depth Course. She has written and presented papers at numerous Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA) Commodity Tax Symposia and at the BC Tax Conference on indirect tax topics, most recently presenting a paper at the BC Tax Conference on the return to PST in BC.

Janice holds a bachelor of commerce degree and is a chartered accountant and a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of British Columbia.

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Neal Armstrong

Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg

Wendy Brousseau

McCarthy Tétrault

Michael Bussmann

Gowlings, Taxand Canada

Brian Cacic

Baker & McKenzie

Jean-Hugues Chabot

EY

Allan Gelkopf

Blake, Cassels & Graydon

Greg Kanargelidis

Blake, Cassels & Graydon

David Schlesinger

KPMG in Canada

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