We have no doubt that you have different approaches to different people. That's quite clear. I agree with you on that. The Auditor General's report did find that you're very aggressive when it comes to Joe, the local pizza shop owner, but you're very hands-off when it comes to the international tax evaders, which is consistent with the approach that this government is taking. “Sometimes, the Agency did not obtain information at all, and the file was closed without any taxes assessed”, the report says of the pursuit of offshore transactions and international banks and other organizations that have money stashed away abroad.
The average taxpayer, Mr. Commissioner, looks at that and says, my, that must be awfully nice to be able to just keep the information away from the tax agency long enough that CRA just quietly goes away. Unfortunately, as you know, that is not the approach of this government when it comes to everyday working taxpayers, nor has it been with respect to people with diabetes. The Liberal government denied thousands of diabetics their right to the disability tax credit.
Your agency violated the law in doing that. The law is very clear that these people were eligible. You then did a reassessment and admitted that you were wrong to deny 1,326 of the originally denied claims. However, there are 941—I'm wrapping up here—individuals whose applications have been re-disallowed. In other words, they're not going to receive the tax credit they thought they would. Now we find out you're not going to inform them of that fact. Why would you deny these people the right to know they've been refused and thereby prevent them from filing an appeal to that refusal? Why not just send them a letter saying they've been refused so that they have the opportunity to appeal that refusal?