Income taxes



	For the three months ended March 31
(in millions of Canadian dollars)	2017		2016
Current income tax expense	$	81	$	77
Deferred income tax expense	67		93
Income tax expense	$	148	$	170

The effective tax rate in the first quarter is 25.60%, compared to 23.89% for the same period in 2016.

The estimated 2017 annual effective tax rate for the first quarter, excluding the discrete items of the management transition recovery of $51 million related to the retirement of the Company's Chief Executive Officer and the foreign exchange gain of $28 million ($181 million in 2016) on the Company’s U.S. dollar-denominated debt, is 26.50%, one percent lower compared to 27.50% for the same period in 2016.