Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to all the witnesses for some great presentations.
Seeing as it's tax day...I heard a few comments in terms of the tax system. As the parliamentary secretary for the national revenue agency, I just want to make a note that certainly our goal is closing the tax loopholes. We've made significant progress. There's certainly more to do in terms of tax evasion and offshore tax havens.
As for CRA staffing, we actually have 400 more auditors than we did in the past. As far as where we've looked at reductions goes, of course, I think probably most people have electronically filed. Really, we are trying to refocus our resources to actually do exactly what you said.
I certainly wanted to make that comment and not leave it unresponded to, because we do recognize how important it is to have a tax system that's fair to all Canadians.
I will start my questions with Mr. Richardson. I appreciate your article, “Some Observations on the Concept and Measurement of Income Inequality”. You state that “income inequality is a relative concept”. We've heard from other witnesses who've also said that looking at a single group as a snapshot in time doesn't actually look at an absolute level.
I've watched a number of young adults, friends of my children, who have graduated from high school and graduated from university. Certainly many of them are enjoying life right now. They're certainly not at a high-income level. I anticipate that will change over time.
Can you elaborate? Does a single sample group give us a true picture of the real economic conditions? Just talk a little bit more about your graphs.