Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thanks to the minister for coming here today.
I was happy to see you come to the Northwest Territories, Minister. I was also very happy to see you were able to visit Nunavut. We share a lot of our concerns across the board.
During our time with you in the Northwest Territories, we heard lots about tax issues. Reassessment was one of the things that came up a couple of times. It's something that has been brought to my attention over the last while, also. Again this year, as we hit tax time, the issue of reassessment is starting to surface. The reassessment process takes time. It takes several months to go through. Usually if you're expecting a tax refund and you get notice of reassessment, you're not going to get a refund right away if you were supposed to get one. It creates a lot of hardship for the low-income families.
We know in the north that we are above the average. The average across the country, the national rate, is 4.6%. The number of reassessments that are happening in the north is almost triple that. Some people have been reassessed 10 times in 10 years.
We're really happy that the taxpayers' ombudsman has decided to do some preliminary research on this issue, on the northern residency reassessments. Her office has not yet launched the systemic examination of this issue, but they have said they are satisfied with what they have done so far.
Could you maybe tell me what actions have been undertaken by CRA that have led to the ombudsman being able to say she's satisfied with what she's seen so far?