Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to speak in favour of this motion; it's a very important motion. There's a lot of uncertainty right now as to what's going on at the CRA. I noted in question period—I think it was yesterday or the day before—that several questions were asked of the revenue minister about filing deadlines at the CRA, which she did not respond to. Ultimately, Minister Gould, to her credit, did say something about electronic filing's still going on, but of course, we're not clear as to whether Canadians can get through to the CRA, whether they'll be getting their refunds on time, when they'll be getting their refunds, and whether they'll be able to get through to the CRA to get their questions answered in order to be able to file their taxes.
I would actually like to see the revenue minister come to the committee, and I am hoping to get all members on side with this. I don't know if we need a separate motion for it or not—at least a request to the revenue minister to come to committee to sort this out.
We don't have the information we need at this point to know whether or not the services at the CRA are happening as they should at a critical time of the year, given the strike. The purpose of this motion is to extend the filing deadline for 21 days beyond the end of the strike in order to make sure that Canadians are able to get the information and services they need in order to comply with their obligations under the Income Tax Act.
With that said, I think this is an important motion that all members of this committee should support.