Finance committee  I can't really make any comment on that point. In that particular case, Mr. Chair, it would be a case of speculating, and I really don't have those numbers with me at this point. I would not want to speculate on the conclusion of something like that.

Finance committee  I'm not discussing those matters with the Department of Finance people. In the case of the discussions with the Government of Quebec, it's—

Finance committee  Mr. Chair, as I mentioned before, I can share with the committee that we have indeed taken action to reinforce not only the human resources aspect of dealing with that concern but also to make changes to processes and systems to deal with that particular situation.

Finance committee  Mr. Chair, there's obviously a cost to implementing an arrangement, a harmonization program such as this.

Finance committee  That's correct.

Finance committee  Right. There were two components. One process the committee has seen before was with respect to being well positioned to have the harmonization of the two taxes in those two provinces in place by July 1, 2010. This is the funding that's required to administer the program on an ongoing basis, and the $57 million is in relation to 2010-11.

Finance committee  No. The original amount was $40 million to be able to put the program in place in 2009-10.

Finance committee  The $40 million is not recurring. This is the one that had been approved in the past. The $57 million is the amount for 2010-11, and in our main estimates that will be tabled shortly we will have the ongoing portion.

Finance committee  There is an ongoing capital component as well, so out of the $57 million, $54 million is operating and $3 million is capital. In our main estimates, we'll outline the funding for the other years, and there will also be a division between operating and capital. That's how we show our budgets.

Finance committee  Mr. Chair, as we indicated, the CRA is responsible for administrating the programs--

Finance committee  Mr. Chair, we're in a position to provide estimates on how much it will take to implement the programs. Unfortunately, we wouldn't be in a position to provide an assessment of the program itself.

Finance committee  The estimates we arrive at are arrived at after, and we submit the details of the estimates after the announcement. There may be some discussion prior to that, but I'm not aware of detailed discussions around how much the program would cost.

Finance committee  --so we're not in a position to really provide an assessment or evaluation of the programs.

Finance committee  Yes. To arrive at the amount in question, $57 million, we rely on categories such as the communications system, calls, etc. We use certain principles to arrive at those amounts, but these are only costs for the implementation of a program such as this one.

Finance committee  Mr. Chair, in response to the member's question, I'd like to assure the committee that on an ongoing basis we do realign resources to the areas that are at the highest priority for risk and of concern to the agency. This is one of the areas, so we are realigning resources to address the concerns the member has raised.