The Financial Post reports in its Saturday edition that a Quebec research institute says some of Canada's biggest companies have transferred billions of dollars in profits to Luxembourg to avoid paying domestic taxes. A Canadian Press dispatch to the Post says that research from IRIS says that 59 Canadian companies -- including 33 headquartered in Quebec -- transferred $119.8-billion in net profits to the European low-tax country over a period of about 10 years. IRIS's Colin Pratte, the study's co-author, said Luxembourg was chosen for the research because, unlike other tax havens, it makes financial information publicly available. While studying those disclosures, researchers concentrated on the period between 2011 and 2021, during which the transferring of profits rose sharply, he said. "What we realized ... is that the phenomenon doesn't only still exist, but it's accelerated in recent years," he said. "Transfers increased by an average of 20 per cent a year between 2011 and 2021, and in 2021 alone, we're talking about $20-billion that was transferred by Canadian companies to Luxembourg," he told CP. The companies listed in the study include big names such as Thomson Reuters, Alimentation Couche-tard and Saputo.