I could answer that, Chair.
Of course you made the key point there, which is that it's over five years. When I asked for documentation of how the money was spent—for example, in 2019 I received a written question in the Senate—the government acknowledged that just over $250 million was actually spent from the 2016-17 budget. Then we find that the money was not spent quite where it was said it was going to be spent. The CRA advised us that they had to spend some of the money on funding towards employees' benefit plans. Obviously treating your employees fairly and fulfilling collective agreements is important, but it's not the same as cracking down on tax evasion, which was how the commitment was described in the budget.
I don't have any additional information on the money, although I do note that the revenue minister stated in response to a House of Commons question number 541 that in order to free up CRA resources for pandemic-related programs, many audits have been temporarily suspended as a non-critical service. I'm wondering what that means about overseas tax evasion.
All that is to say it goes back to the point I was making earlier. There's something structurally wrong in governance in the CRA and how they run their operation. That's an area that should be looked at.