Finance committee  On your question on protection of informants, I think there is going to be a distinction to be made between the informant who provides information in the context of tax evasion, which is a crime, which would benefit from the police informant protection at common law, which courts

Finance committee  That I agree with.

Finance committee  You're asking a very charged question. Coming from Quebec, I think it's a difficult question. But that being said, in general, harmonization is of course something that should be viewed in a positive light because it simply is helpful in the sense that we are in a global economy

Finance committee  I tend to agree on this, for sure. Canada wants to make sure that its tax system is as attractive as possible. Again, I'm repeating that we are competing in this global economy with other countries that are taking all kinds of measures with different points of view on different p

Finance committee  This is common practice in the United States when it comes to taxes. For a long time, various federal organizations, such as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, have had well-established programs under which the information provided to help the authorities is paid for in

Finance committee  I think maybe it goes back to the comment that was made earlier regarding the issue of culture. In some countries, especially in European countries, the whole aspect of whistle-blowing is something that is not very enshrined or very well looked upon. So I think culturally that's

Finance committee  Yes, of course it's a good thing. As Canadian taxpayers, we all want to make sure that all taxes are paid in accordance with the act. There is no doubt about that, so anything that the CRA does to legally collect moneys that are owed to all taxpayers is a good initiative. The iss

Finance committee  Everybody should be paying their share, but on the same principle, we accept that in Canada it's legal to plan your affairs in accordance with the act. As long as you're obviously arranging your affairs in accordance with the act, then there is no issue. But if you're abusing the

Finance committee  I think a distinction has to be made here. As you mentioned, we in certain questions addressed the whistle-blower program. Within the whistle-blower program, there's a new initiative from the government that deals with offshore taxes. We were discussing the different difficulties

Finance committee  Yes, that's right.

Finance committee  That's what they say right now. If there were at least more rules around protecting the identity of the person, I think it would just help the program. People would feel more comfortable in providing the information. There are a lot of hurdles. First of all, you have to provi

Finance committee  No, the concern is at a different level. We're talking at the level that if we accept the fact that, as a society in Canada, we're moving toward the American model—I'm not giving an opinion on that—but we want to go there and want to encourage people to come forward and be paid f

Finance committee  —is that the other program existed before. If we take that for granted, I think the concern mostly with this program, as it is proposed right now, is that there are not sufficient rules to protect the identity of the person. The CRA, I'm sure, will do whatever they are able to

Finance committee  The answer is again if we take for granted we want that kind of a program, then, yes. If you are going to pay, the incentive has to be high enough for the person to take the risk of providing that information.

Finance committee  That's correct. Take it for granted that we accept the program, that we want it in Canada. I'm just saying that if you compare it to the U.S. model, they are paying much more. What I'm saying is that if you consider you're dealing with offshore tax matters and international tax i