We were looking at a couple of different aspects in the audit. We were looking at what the Department of Finance does before a tax measure is put in place, and then we were also looking at what it does once a tax measure has been implemented.
As for what it does before a tax measure is put in place, we cover that starting in paragraph 3.34, which is where we say the following:
...when analyzing tax-based expenditures before they were implemented, the Department of Finance Canada considered most key elements of its analytical framework, such as the need for government intervention, and efficiency, effectiveness, and equity.
Throughout that section we do say, for example, in paragraph 3.42, that:
We found that the Department analyzed the issues related to policy need, efficiency, effectiveness, equity, and forgone revenues for most of the selected tax measures. However, the Department did not consider spending alternatives for the tax measures we examined.
Overall, in the area of looking at measures before they're implemented, we felt that the department was doing a good job of analyzing them and doing most of the things that were in its framework. We did say, in paragraph 3.42, however, that we found in some cases that it hadn't considered spending alternatives for the tax measures we examined.