Things can only get better. Hundreds of billions of dollars are circulating in tax havens, in the order of $21 billion. That is calculated in tera dollars. Clearly, there is room for improvement.
Once again, it's all well and good to send the CRA to the front, armed with 100 additional auditors, but let's not forget that the previous government made drastic cuts to the CRA's budget. The additional funding invested in its operations will just barely bring things up to par. So we are back to the way things stood before the cuts.
It is doubtful that the CRA is equipped to conduct monitoring operations of wealthy individuals. I must stress that this is a global problem. Wealthy individuals are an important group of tax evaders, but the main issue is tax evasion, that is, the way we have legalized a number of transactions of multinationals or have lost control, as the case may be. If we do not take that broader view of the matter, we will be working in the margins. If you are saying that we are making progress in the margins, I'll give you that much. We are making progress in the margins, but the problem must be seen from a broader perspective.
If Canada had done nothing about tax havens since 1980, I think we would be further ahead today. Canada has been lax, in particular by signing an agreement against double taxation with Barbados. This agreement is completely unacceptable from the perspective of political thought. An agreement against double taxation only makes sense if the tax policies of the two countries are similar. Barbados, however, has a tax rate of 0.25%, while capital is taxed at 35% in Canada. The suitability of such an agreement is questionable.