Finance Committee on May 25th, 2010

Evidence of meeting #21 for Finance in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was budget.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

Main Estimates 2010-2011: Votes 1 and 5 under CANADA REVENU AGENCY and votes 1, 5, L10, 20, 25, 30, 35 and 40 under FINANCE

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Sherry Harrison Executive Director, Corporate Services Branch, Department of Finance

Richard Botham General Director, Economic Development and Corporate Finance, Department of Finance

Paul Rochon Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Economic and Fiscal Policy Branch, Department of Finance

Jeremy Rudin Assistant Deputy Minister, Financial Sector Policy Branch, Department of Finance

Margaret Baxter Chief Financial Officer, Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada

Chris Forbes General Director, Federal-Provincial Relations and Social Policy Branch, Department of Finance

Greg Smith Chief Financial Officer, Public-Private Partnerships Canada

Nancy Horsman General Director, Analysis, Tax Policy Branch, Department of Finance

Filipe Dinis Deputy Assistant Commissioner, Finance and Administration Branch, Canada Revenue Agency

Brian McCauley Assistant Commissioner, Legislative Policy and Regulatory Affairs Branch, Canada Revenue Agency

5:30 p.m.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner, Finance and Administration Branch, Canada Revenue Agency

Filipe Dinis

Mr. Chair, it's in recognition of the fact that we are, as I indicated before, an IT-dependent organization. We undertake some significant projects and it's a recognition that this capital budget and those activities that fall under that particular new vote should be accounted for separately.

The majority of those are systems, our software packages, etc., that we develop on an annual basis, and we need to renew them annually. So we need to account for them and, from an accounting perspective, also depreciate them accordingly.

5:30 p.m.

Liberal

Martha Hall Findlay Liberal Willowdale, ON

Okay. Great.

Thank you.

5:30 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative James Rajotte

Thank you.

I have one very brief question on the number of people who file electronically. I think you mentioned that it was 58% last year...?

5:30 p.m.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner, Finance and Administration Branch, Canada Revenue Agency

Filipe Dinis

That's right. We're at approximately 58% for the—

5:30 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative James Rajotte

What do you expect it will be? Is that the 2009 tax year?

5:30 p.m.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner, Finance and Administration Branch, Canada Revenue Agency

Filipe Dinis

This is probably the 2009-10 tax year. We continue to try to improve on that. We don't necessarily have a projection, or I don't have it with me, but it's something that we strive to.... There's a certain point, a certain threshold, that it's hard to go beyond, so we're trying to improve on the 58%.

5:30 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative James Rajotte

Thank you.

We appreciate you being here. If you have anything further you'd like to submit to the committee, please do so through the clerk.

Of course, the answer to Mr. McKay and Mr. Pacetti on the tax-free savings account is the thousands of people who have set aside savings for their own retirement.

5:30 p.m.

Voices

Oh, oh!

5:30 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative James Rajotte

You can feel free to submit that to the committee, if you so wish.

Thank you for being with us this afternoon.

Thank you, colleagues.

5:30 p.m.

Conservative

Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON

Are we doing this or...?

5:30 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative James Rajotte

My understanding was that we were going to receive something from Finance within the next week--

5:30 p.m.

Conservative

Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON

Okay, fine.

5:30 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative James Rajotte

--unless members want to deal with it today.

5:30 p.m.

Conservative

Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON

Oh, and I got red-flagged, by the way.

5:30 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative James Rajotte

The meeting is adjourned.