Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Certainly we do agree that the issue of tax evasion and the use of offshore tax havens is an important issue, which of course is why we agreed to participate in a study looking at that issue.
I would like to point out that on February 5 of this year we had officials from the Canada Revenue Agency. Certainly they were very clear that they had adequate resources. What they were really putting forward was interest in the need for tools. I was very pleased to see, of course, in economic action plan 2013, that we've actually moved forward in giving the critical tools the Canada Revenue Agency is going to need to do the job—one example, of course, being the FINTRAC—with a number of very important measures.
So we have had the officials indicating clearly that, please, we need some tools, but we are adequately resourced. The minister has responded to this issue in the House regularly, indicating that since 2006 we have increased by 40% the folks who are focused in on international auditing. We have realigned them so that they are working with public prosecutions in a much more effective way.
I think she has clearly stated that as Canadians change the way they file taxes—I think probably many people electronically file, or have their accountants electronically file—it is very obvious that we need fewer people sitting at keyboards, inputting those thousands and millions of paper returns, and that we have aligned our system to reflect the use of modern technology.
Really, I think we have a very busy committee. We have heard clearly from the minister. We have heard clearly from the representatives at the CRA.
If the NDP wants to include something in the recommendations of the report, certainly they are welcome to have what recommendations they believe are important. But to repeat that same message again and again I don't think is particularly an appropriate use of the committee's time.
Thank you.