I don't think you know this, and that's okay, but for every financial piece of legislation that's been sent to this committee, including all of the budgets, we ask the same question: How many FTEs will be hired as a result?
The departmental spending plans that are released every year consistently show that full-time equivalents will drop by about 2% every year, except that when the year ends and we get the updated report, FTEs go up. I'm not really sure whether it's a Treasury Board issue or a Finance issue. It doesn't really seem like anyone is paying attention to a people plan, because every year, that goes up when the government's projections have gone down.
We see this in the underused housing tax. You projected the underused housing tax would bring in $200 million a year in the first year and then $170 million every year thereafter. The numbers are in. Since 2022, the government spent $59 million in administration, including hiring 350 people. It has assessed only $49 million in penalties. That's assessed, not collected. In fact, it hasn't even started collecting any money yet.
How has the government's projections been so far off on the underused housing tax?