Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the witnesses today.
I was astonished, Mr. Howlett, until Mr. Van Kesteren brought forward the information. We did hear testimony, and I'm not sure if you heard the first day...as Mr. Van Kesteren said, an amount of $173 million was identified in 2005, as far as tax cheats are concerned. Since that period of time, somewhere in the neighbourhood of $700 million has been identified per year. That's some four times as much under this government as the last government.
We have taken great steps, and I agree with you that there are amazing amounts of steps to go forward, and of course international agreements seem to be that....
Mr. Wrobel, I understand that to open a business bank account in Canada, people have to submit their articles of incorporation to the bank before they can do so. They have to submit that over 50% of the company is held by Canadian residents or Canadian directors, and in fact the articles of incorporation include controlling shareholders, the classes of shares, and things like that. So my understanding is that you can't open a bank account in Canada, at least at any of the chartered banks, without that information going to the bank so that they know who in essence is in control.
Is that fair to say?