Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My thanks also go to the witnesses for appearing before the committee.
My first question is about point 3.18, which deals with the challenges of identifying high-risk cases of major corporations.
I called on an outside tax expert, Mr. Léo-Paul Lauzon, the director of the UQAM Laboratoire d'études socio-économiques. His analysis was published under the title Le réel taux d'imposition de grandes entreprises canadiennes : du mythe à la réalité. It is based on data from the Canada Revenue Agency for three years, from 2009 to 2011 inclusively.
Before me I have the net tax rate of Canada's 99 largest corporations. I see that TransCanada Corporation has made a profit of $5.9 billion, but has paid only 1.7% as a real tax rate. Clearly, there has been aggressive tax planning.
Macroeconomic trends in paying taxes are as follows: companies are paying less and less tax while individuals are paying more and more, especially those who cannot afford a tax expert. So there clearly is an abuse. That is quite clear.
Are you able to curb this trend or are we always going to be trailing behind and having to rectify abusive situations as they arise?