Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'd be badly placed to offer any kind of criticism of the agency, since I not too long ago was the minister, and I think it was, at least in those days, very well run.
Certainly, to be serious, I do believe that. Having worked with the people at the end of table, I know they manage the operation with a high degree of professionalism, with which I was always proud to be associated while I was there. I do have three questions nevertheless.
Mr. Dorais mentioned the expenditure review process. I chaired the committee that oversaw this exercise. I recall the discussions that took place and the ensuing cuts stemming from the review process. My question concerns the measures that will eventually be implemented.
During the election campaign, the Conservatives announced cuts in the order of $22.6 billion over five years. Compared to the cuts made by the Liberal government, these cuts are going to be much deeper. The Agency had some problems dealing with the cuts made by our government. It should have an even more difficult time with the new government, since we've already identified the reductions that will be the easiest to make.
Looking forward to the next round of expenditure review, or cuts of a much greater severity, what will this imply for the services of the agency, the regional distribution of jobs in the agency, and things of that nature?
My two remaining questions have to do with the GST. I'll begin with the overall cost. I'd like it if Monsieur Dorais could confirm or deny reports that the government was out by $500 million to $700 million in its estimate of the cost of reducing by one percentage point. My understanding is that they didn't display great competence, in the sense that they were looking at the net numbers after the cost of the credit. When you look at it properly, the cost was out by $500 million to $700 million per year, which is a lot of money.
To Monsieur Dorais, can you tell us the true cost of the 1% reduction in GST and the degree to which that differed from the estimate that the Conservatives put forward during the election?
Finally, this is really a tax administration question. I know that the CRA is administration rather than policy. When you change the GST by one point or two or whatever, there are large costs imposed on businesses to change all of the systems to make this happen. Certainly there are costs imposed on the CRA itself to make this happen.
Are the businesses going to be ready in time for the announced date of the cut? Do you have any idea of the order of magnitude of the dollar costs that businesses will have to pay to make this change? And do you have any idea, or an approximation at least, of the dollar costs in terms of resources that the agency will have to pay to make this change?
I think the question about the private sector is more important, if more difficult. A change of this nature is not simple. How many person-hours of work, how many dollars of costs, are involved in making such a change? Will it be so onerous a risk that a number of businesses won't be ready on the prescribed date?