Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I do want to start very quickly by acknowledging the passing of MP Mark Warawa. Mark and I were on the same floor in the Valour Building, and I had the chance to get to know him quite well from a number of conversations. I do wish to pass on my sincerest condolences to his family. I know that the Lord has inherited quite the angel in the last 24 hours. My condolences on Mark's passing.
Going to the topic at hand, the CRA has published a set of reports. The fifth one came out this week: “Tax Gap and Compliance Results for the Federal Corporate Income Tax System”.
If I could just read out the preamble in the executive summary, I think it speaks to the measures our government undertook to ensure the integrity of our tax system. It states:
In April 2016, the Government of Canada committed to estimating the federal tax gap to encourage an open and transparent discussion on tax non-compliance. Understanding how and why taxpayers are non-compliant is critical to help preserve the integrity of the tax system and to protect Canada's revenue base, which supports programs and benefits delivered to Canadians.
I think that little preamble, that first sentence of this last report, is very important to folks back home in my riding and across Canada to assure them that the federal government is providing CRA with all the resources it needs to do its job for integrity.
I have a quick question. We heard some numbers: the before tax gap numbers, the broad ones, but then the audited ones. In your view, how important were the resources we invested in the CRA to pursue those proper audits and reduce that tax gap to be as minimal as possible?