I'll answer that question, Mr. Chair.
In terms of the first part of the question on what we're working on and how we're finding new schemes, we have what we call centres of expertise for aggressive tax planning. That's where we have auditors who are very well trained and experienced in identifying potential schemes.
We have aggressive tax planning auditors across the country, and various tax services offices as well. They are an excellent referral to our centre of expertise. The centre of expertise does data mining of our tax returns and the forms that are available to us. Whether it's information forms relating to assets or income from other countries or from domestic measures, this group will analyze various forms of business intelligence. They'll get referrals from our tax rulings department.
Once they identify a potential scheme, we may go about creating a pilot whereby we will select a certain part of our taxpayer base and conduct some test audits to see whether those schemes are indeed considered aggressive tax planning. If there is aggressive tax planning, at that point they may go to the GAAR committee. We will at that point often advise the Department of Finance of our findings in order to identify a potential tax loophole. Sometimes the case is litigated through the courts, etc. That's the process we use to identify.
In terms of communicating, as soon as we do identify, we do pilots, as I've said, but in other cases where we have more certainty, we have what's called a “Wiki”, which is an electronic means of communicating with our auditors in real time. Our auditors have access to real-time updates on what we're finding with regard to potential schemes. We receive information from our treaty partners, and we are part of JITSIC, the Joint International Tax Shelter Information Centre, where we also exchange specific tax avoidance information. As soon as information is identified, it's communicated.
We have regular round tables with our tax auditors across the country as well.