Certainly.
First of all, I can tell you that I play no part in the process. There's no political interference whatsoever. I'm not kept in the loop at all. Officially, this is a power conferred on the minister, but that power is delegated to the commissioner and assistant commissioners, based on the amount of the debt.
Before a decision is made to write off a debt, there's obviously a whole collection process to be followed. It's a multi-step process, and it usually takes several years before the agency reaches the provision for bad debt and the subsequent steps. The entire process complies with generally recognized accounting principles. That includes the agency's procedures, of course, but it also complies with the Financial Administration Act and the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act. This process is very strictly controlled. Furthermore, the Office of the Auditor General of Canada reviews the agency's decision.
The agency puts in a lot of effort before reaching the writeoff stage. A number of considerations factor into the equation. For instance, we consider the age of the account and how long it's been delinquent for. We also assess the creditworthiness of the indebted individual or company. In our quest for continuous improvement, we always keep an ear to the ground so we can hear about the latest schemes and prevent people from using them.