Perhaps in the interests of time, this is a very straightforward motion. It simply suggests that this committee invite the Auditor General and his officials to appear before the committee before June 11 to discuss chapter 3, “Status Report on Collecting Tax Debts—Canada Revenue Agency”, in the Auditor General's spring 2013 update.
The committee will have received a letter from Mr. Ferguson dated May 6 in which he seems to ask for the opportunity to speak. He says that he and his staff would be pleased to come to the committee and meet with us about the crucial issues that he points out in his status report. Among which is the uncollected tax debt increasing by 60% since 2006. It has risen from $18 billion to $29 billion dollars, with 10% of the total tax debt written-off each year.
Mr. Chair, this would seem to be something worthy of the finance committee's attention. It seems self-evident that if the Auditor General has something to talk to us about, we would want to hear him on such an enormously important issue. That's the reason for the motion.