Order, please.
I want to welcome everyone here today. Bienvenue à tous.
I have a few preliminary remarks, and I also want to deal with the minutes of the steering committee before we get into the main orders of the day.
Before we do anything, I want to extend, on behalf of all members of the committee, a very special welcome to three additional members of the Mali delegation. We had five here the other day and we were very pleased to see them. Back with us today are three additional members of that delegation: Mr. Moumouni Guindo, Mr. Ismaël Diawara, and Madam Aissata N'diaye. Welcome to the committee. We are certainly pleased that you are here with us today.
Next, before I introduce our witnesses, I want to deal with the minutes of yesterday's steering committee. They have been circulated. I don't think there's anything contentious. They basically outline chapters that we are going to deal with. There is one item I'd like to add and I'll add it after paragraph 1. I'll just read it:
That pursuant to Standing Order 108(3)(g), the Committee undertake a study of Revenue Canada “Interest on Advanced Deposits from Corporate Taxpayers, Canada Revenue Agency;
The steering committee may come back and not do it, but as you will recall, this involves a loophole. Large companies were taking advantage of a situation by paying deposits and getting interest rates that were larger than normal. Of course, they knew the taxes. There was some indication that it was cleaned up, but our most recent information is that it was not. So we'd like to add that to the steering committee as a possible chapter.
Mr. Kramp.