Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I do want to welcome you and state that it is an honour to meet you. We truly appreciate everything you've done in your various roles.
Today, in particular, you've made some comments that have really made us think about what we're doing in investigating the tax haven issue. One of the comments you made was about whistleblowers. I'd like to share with you a few of the things that CRA has done to work on this issue and then get your comment about whistleblowers and about the voluntary disclosure program.
If you would allow me, one of the things that Canada has done extensive work on is these tax treaties that have been mentioned before, and of course it was our Minister of Finance who announced in 2007, during the budget, that these treaties would now have revisions that must include the new OECD standard for exchange of information, which is important and reiterates some of the comments you have made.
Another thing the CRA has done is that they now have centres of expertise across Canada with senior audit professionals and specialists in international tax and tax avoidance. Last year, as Ms. McLeod mentioned, the CRA was able to uncover over $1 billion in unpaid federal tax from Canadian taxpayers involved in aggressive international transactions.
The last thing, which you also touched upon, was that the voluntary disclosure program leads to disclosures. The CRA received almost 3,000 international voluntary disclosures last year, and it steadily increased over the past five years.
Going back to the whistleblowing and the voluntary disclosure program, can you tell me what your opinion is of the voluntary disclosure program? Can you just clarify how that works?