As you said, this is a significant amount. If I'm not wrong, the biggest amount is with the Canada Revenue Agency, where they collect $220 billion of personal and corporate tax, and GST, and so on. They have procedures in place to collect--to identify it and vigorously go after that debt--but the question is whether this is enough. There are some business decisions being made. If there are no assets to be recovered, you can press until the lemon is dry, but the important part is that this is reported, so the amounts are tracked and vigorously followed, and systems are being put in place to report it, also.
On September 28th, 2006. See this statement in context.