Evidence of meeting #60 for Finance in the 40th Parliament, 3rd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was cra.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Bloc
Daniel Paillé Bloc Hochelaga, QC
You could have answered me, in particular by saying that Quebec is already administering the federal government's GST and that, consequently, the costs will not decline.
Are you consulting the Department of Finance on the harmonization of the GST and QST with Quebec?
Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Commissioner, Finance and Administration Branch, Canada Revenue Agency
I'm not discussing those matters with the Department of Finance people. In the case of the discussions with the Government of Quebec, it's—
Bloc
Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Commissioner, Finance and Administration Branch, Canada Revenue Agency
Yes, but we have a very close relationship with Quebec's revenue department on the administrative side.
Bloc
Daniel Paillé Bloc Hochelaga, QC
Earlier my colleague discussed corruption and collusion allegations that were made last fall. We'll talk about that at greater length in the spring. In view of those allegations and the fact that you are the Canada Revenue Agency's chief financial officer, have you taken any action to change the way you operate, particularly in Montreal?
Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Commissioner, Finance and Administration Branch, Canada Revenue Agency
Mr. Chair, as I mentioned before, I can share with the committee that we have indeed taken action to reinforce not only the human resources aspect of dealing with that concern but also to make changes to processes and systems to deal with that particular situation.
Conservative
Cathy McLeod Conservative Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'm certainly in direct contrast to my colleague here. I want to say that we are the group that brings in over $300 billion in revenue and, really, the administrative cost for a very complex tax regime is probably quite reasonable as a percentage.
Would you have any comments? Probably we're the only department coming here and asking for a reduction in terms of the supplementary estimates.
Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Commissioner, Finance and Administration Branch, Canada Revenue Agency
Mr. Chair, we're quite proud of our success in implementing government policy and programs on a regular basis; there are some significant ones, such as this one, and there are others. We've done it successfully. It's something that we pride ourselves on, on this ability to turn around a big agency such as ours in a timely fashion and be successful in implementing these policy changes.
Conservative
Cathy McLeod Conservative Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC
Thank you. I just had to get that on the record.
Here's what I'm very curious about. As we know, the decision to go to an HST is a provincial choice, and the federal government has always supported provincial choice, whether it be in the maritimes very early on or more recently in B.C. and Ontario.
As you're probably also aware, B.C. is going to be dealing with a referendum in terms of potentially reversing that decision around HST. Now, I think, as I listen to the general conversation--which of course is in my province--there's an awareness of that $1.6 billion that was provided by the feds to the provinces. But I think for a completely informed decision by the general population...and it's not really speculating, because you manage to move from separate to one. Could you talk a little about what will have to happen for it to go from one back to two if the Province of B.C. so chooses?
Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Commissioner, Finance and Administration Branch, Canada Revenue Agency
Mr. Chair, obviously at the Canada Revenue Agency we're responsible for administering the HST in British Columbia as it stands today, and obviously that is what we will continue to do until such time that circumstances change.
So yes, the member is indeed correct. We are not able to speculate on the outcome of the referendum, and we won't, but having said that, there are certain agreements that we've entered into with the Province of British Columbia, in particular in areas such as human resources agreements, etc. So those and possibly others would have to be looked at when the time comes, if that's where we arrive at.
Conservative
Cathy McLeod Conservative Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC
So in these estimates, if you're looking at $54 billion to move in one direction, of course only a percentage of that relates to British Columbia, but there would probably be significant costs in terms of reversal to move the other way, both for the federal government and the province. Would that be...?
Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Commissioner, Finance and Administration Branch, Canada Revenue Agency
Mr. Chair, just as a point for clarity, it is $54 million.
Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Commissioner, Finance and Administration Branch, Canada Revenue Agency
I just don't want to.... With respect to the costs, there is work being undertaken that we had to undertake, given the work that needed to be done, irrespective.... So there will likely be some detangling costs. I just can't speculate at this point in time on what those will be.
Conservative
Cathy McLeod Conservative Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC
Just out of a quick curiosity, within the expenditures there was a small pie, and I think it represented $3.1 million. Perhaps others here know that was related to disbursing for charities. Can you tell me what that is?
Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Commissioner, Finance and Administration Branch, Canada Revenue Agency
Mr. Chair, could the member point out where exactly that is, please? I don't see anything in the chart.
Conservative
Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Commissioner, Finance and Administration Branch, Canada Revenue Agency
Mr. Chair, the $3 million that's being referenced, while not in our supplementaries (C), is a component of our budget. We in the agency don't have a large component of charities and grants and contribution programs. We do have one item, which is the one that the member has outlined. It's a $3 million amount and we partner with charities for in terms of creating awareness in terms of the requirements and creating awareness in terms of what's not acceptable and what is acceptable vis-à-vis the administration of charities.
That money, the $3 million, is the only contribution program we have.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Rajotte
Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. McLeod.
We'll go back to Mr. Szabo, please.
Liberal
Paul Szabo Liberal Mississauga South, ON
In terms of assumptions in doing your estimates or your forecasting, how do you adjust matters for the economic condition of the country? What are the major influences and break points at which you would say we're having more or less activity here, in either ins or outs of dollars?
Chief Financial Officer and Assistant Commissioner, Finance and Administration Branch, Canada Revenue Agency
Mr. Chair, the forecasting of revenues again is something that is done by the Department of Finance. What we contribute to that discussion is that obviously we are a major player in terms of the collection of revenues for the Government of Canada.
Liberal
Paul Szabo Liberal Mississauga South, ON
I'm not interested in the volume of activity, but rather the dollar value. Is there a presumption that if the economic fundamentals are down, we're going to have some difficulty in terms of people not filing, or more investigations, etc.? You get the idea.