Thank you for being here, Minister. Welcome to the Standing Committee on Finance. I am very happy to see you in such good company.
I don't know whether you know, but at the beginning of this millennium, I started my career at the Canada Revenue Agency. I worked on advance rulings.
Since we have the officials here with us, I would like to tell them that during the worst of the pandemic, in the first year of the pandemic, I was working at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the OECD. I was able to see everything that went on at the Forum on Tax Administration. All the resources needed for helping people in OECD countries that had enormous needs for immediate help when they had lost their jobs or could not go to work were being put together. I would like to say what a big leadership role the Canada Revenue Agency played in relation to those measures. All the practices that you put in place were adopted by other countries. I congratulate you on that great effort. When we go abroad, we see the extent to which the Canada Revenue Agency is a leader among tax authorities and to which it is recognized for its integrity. Bravo.
Minister, my first question relates to a comment you made in your opening statement. You mentioned two points that I consider to be very important. I am happy to see that there are additional resources, and I would like you to tell us more about them.
First, you said that budgets had been allocated to do more about tax evasion and tax avoidance. I would like your comments on that subject.
Second, you talked about supplementary budgets for international tax reform. These are big topics that are of considerable concern to me. I would like to know what additional initiatives are being taken on these two subjects.