Good morning, Mr. Chair and committee members.
My name is Isabelle Brault and I am the director general of the legislative policy directorate, legislative policy and regulatory affairs branch at the Canada Revenue Agency. Aliou Diarra is with me today.
I want to thank the committee for inviting us to attend your meeting.
To set a helpful context for the discussions today, I would like to briefly describe the role of the Canada Revenue Agency in the administration of the Excise Tax Act, relative to that of other federal organizations.
As you are aware, the Department of Finance is responsible for developing and evaluating federal tax policy and the legislation through which policy becomes law.
As administrator, the Canada Revenue Agency is responsible for the functions which implement these laws, including providing information to the public and stakeholders; establishing processes through which individuals and businesses may meet their tax obligations and receive benefits; and, of course, carrying out our compliance activities to help ensure that everyone respects the law as it was intended by Parliament.
The role of the Canada Revenue Agency is to interpret the Excise Tax Act and related tax legislation as they are worded. I can thus speak about the application of the legislation.
This concludes my opening remarks.