Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I agree that these are two different types of programs. The indications from the Canada Revenue Agency are that both programs will continue. One is the anonymous program for those individuals who don't wish to make clear who they are or how they obtained this information, more of these anonymous tips just being received without any additional catches. The other program, the one that I had focused on, the offshore tax informant program, has been officialized in the sense that the Canada Revenue Agency has released a number of rules and a number of guidance documents describing how the program would work. One of these is clear that it does require details as to who the informant is and where the information was obtained.
My concern with regard to officializing it is that these are simply administrative guidance documents, and there are no clear regulations or legislative policies explaining how the structure will work or how anonymity against other parties would be maintained. The lack of additional information in this regard is going to make it difficult for professional advisers or for would-be informants to decide whether to come forward, because it's not clear how far the Canada Revenue Agency will go to protect their identity. Frankly, providing this kind of information may come with other types of liability. If there are no clear rules as to how identities will be protected and so forth, then the program will not work as well as it could if there were clear rules.