Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'll keep it brief.
First of all, I fully support getting an update on the situation for a number of reasons.
When I joined the committee, I was brought up to speed and told about the work the committee had done previously. It had reported on tax evasion and the use of tax havens. But a lot has changed since then, hence the importance of obtaining more up-to-date information.
To the point my colleague, Gerald Keddy, made about the great job CRA is doing dealing with tax evasion, I would say that all these numbers simply underscore the problem around transparency. How is it that we're getting that information now? Everyone knows that the Parliamentary Budget Officer formally requested the data but wasn't able to obtain it.
The member is claiming that CRA is doing a great job dealing with tax evasion, and yet the Parliamentary Budget Officer isn't even being allowed to evaluate that performance. Other countries have taken things further. If we want to show that the situation has improved, we have to know where we stand. Let's start by giving the Parliamentary Budget Officer access to the relevant information, and from there, we can determine how much progress has been made. We can't do that right now. We're forced to accept the figures Mr. Keddy is giving us.
As parliamentarians, we should, under normal circumstances, have access to that information.
Thank you.