Mr. Chair, there are a couple of elements in terms of response.
The budget that was just brought down on March 19 included, as I'm sure you're aware, some specific tax policy measures to address international taxation. They relate to the withholding of interest. There the whole issue of interest deductibility, which was an area where profits could be shifted offshore. As well, there were exchange of information agreements.
There was also in the budget—and perhaps not as prominent as other things—some additional money identified for the Canada Revenue Agency to increase its compliance activities, in particular in the area of international taxation. The total amount identified in the budget was $50 million, beginning in the next fiscal year, for 2008-09. A good portion of that will be put toward increasing our level of effort on international taxation, because it's a growth area, frankly. More and more businesses are engaging in international transactions, and we have to try to stay on top of these.
Back to the situation in Toronto, I have a point of clarification. The observation of the Auditor General that people working in international taxation in the Toronto area had less than two years' experience--I believe those were her words--was about people who had less than two years' experience in the international taxation area. These are very seasoned auditors. It's not uncommon not to have a lot of years of experience in international taxation, because you only get to do international tax audits after you're a fairly mature and seasoned expert auditor.
With the additional money, we'll be able to increase our level of effort. In light of the Auditor General's report, and as indicated in our response to the report, we're also looking at opportunities to beef up the training and development of our auditors to fill that gap.
As I said on March 1, Mr. Chair, and I'll say it again, it will always be a challenge for the CRA to attract and maintain auditors at that level in the Greater Toronto Area because of the economic demands and competition we get from the private sector.