Finance Committee on April 21st, 2016

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Could we come to order.

We will start with committee business. The subcommittee, or steering committee, on finance met the other day, and the clerk has handed out a report of its conclusions. That is before you. It's the first report. We would need a motion to accept this. Maybe I should explain it a bit.

First, we've agreed that KPMG be invited before the committee on Tuesday, May 3, for a 90-minute televised meeting on the committee study of the Canada Revenue Agency's effort to combat tax avoidance and evasion, and that the last 30 minutes would be set up for committee business.

Second, the committee will hear from the honourableMinister of Finance and officials from the Department of Finance on Thursday, May 5. We're having a little discussion on whether that's still possible. The minister's office confirmed with me that they thought this was doable, but it's subject to their confirmation.

Third, the week of May 9 to May 13 will be set aside for a series of televised meetings to consider the budget implementation act. That is subject to the budget being out of the House on May 6. If it isn't out of the House by then, we could have a motion to discuss not the act itself but its subject matter more generally, to get a start on it. We can discuss that as well.

Fourth, the committee will invite Andrew Treusch, commissioner of revenue and chief executive officer of the Canada Revenue Agency; Ted Gallivan, the CRA deputy assistant commissioner, compliance programs branch; Stéphanie Henderson, the manager of offshore compliance; and other relevant officials from the CRA to appear before the committee on Tuesday, May 17, for a 90-minute televised meeting on the aforementioned study on the CRA's efforts to combat tax avoidance and evasion.

Fifth, the committee will hear from the honourable Minister of National Revenue on Thursday, May 19, for a two-hour televised meeting. The first hour would be devoted to the committee's study on the Canada Revenue Agency and the tax avoidance and evasion question, and the second hour would be devoted to the main estimates.

That was the conclusion of the subcommittee.

Mr. MacKinnon.

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Gatineau, QC]

I'd like to move the adoption of the committee report.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Is there a seconder?

[Ron Liepert, Conservative, Calgary Signal Hill, AB]

I so move.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Any discussion?

Mr. Liepert.

[Ron Liepert, Conservative, Calgary Signal Hill, AB]

Very briefly, it's just a clarification on point number three.

Are we proposing that the regularly scheduled time of 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. be applied to each one of those days?

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

No. Mr. Caron has been down this path before. As I understand it, I think what Mr. Caron said the other day at the meeting was that we would basically do a blitz that week and try to get as much of the budget implementation act done as we could, which would mean extended meeting hours for basically the full week.

[Ron Liepert, Conservative, Calgary Signal Hill, AB]

What are extended hours, for scheduling purposes?

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

What was the schedule before, Guy? Could you give us that?

[Guy Caron, NDP, Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

It varied according to the content of the bills. There could be two or three meetings a day for one or two weeks, according to the length of the bills that were introduced.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Basically, as the clerk has indicated, the committee would decide how it would proceed on a day-to-day basis.

Mr. Caron.

[Guy Caron, NDP, Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

I understand that the translation doesn't work, so I can translate as well.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

I'm having trouble as well.

[Guy Caron, NDP, Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

It varied according to the length and the content of the BIAs. It was usually between two and three meetings a day for one to two weeks, depending on the bill.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Okay.

Mr. Champagne.

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

Mr. Chair, you had asked me to confirm something about point 2. The Minister of Finance is willing to come to the committee on Thursday, May 5, 2016, as you indicated.

According to current practice, the minister will be here for one hour and the officials from the Department of Finance will stay for the second hour so as to answer the questions of the members of the committee.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Okay. Thank you. It's on estimates.

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

Yes, it is point 2,

on the main estimates.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Mr. Liepert.

[Ron Liepert, Conservative, Calgary Signal Hill, AB]

I'm sorry, I have problems with my translation here.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Do you want to—

[Ron Liepert, Conservative, Calgary Signal Hill, AB]

I actually have a question: what's the rush? We seem to have the entire month of June available.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Well, I think the rush basically is to get the budget implementation act through, out of the House, and to the Senate, which will take some time.

[Guy Caron, NDP, Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

I don't think at the steering committee we had a specific decision made on the scheduling, per se. We just left the week open for that possibility.

I agree with Mr. Liepert. For the week following the one during which we will be in our ridings, that is to say the week of May 31, the only possibility we discussed was the report following the appearance of KPMG and the Canada Revenue Agency. That could also take place in the month of June. We can take our time to do that. Since we must keep in mind that we have to complete the study of the bill within a reasonable time, we could also consider continuing that study during the week of May 31, finish drafting the report in June, and then refer it to the House.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Mr. MacKinnon.