Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to refer you all, because I'd like this to be on the record, to a report from the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, called “Shell Game: How Offshore Havens, Loopholes, and Federal Cost-Cutting Undermine Tax Fairness, A Survey”. It was a survey done of CRA professionals.
I'm going to quote three little parts of it.
I'll start my first one with an attempt to translate it to French, because I'd like this to be on the record in French.
According to the survey, only 16% of the agency's professionals feel that the agency has adequate audit coverage capacity to ensure tax laws are being applied fairly across the country. The 2012 budget cuts are still being felt today.
I'll move on to the next excerpt.
The CRA by comparison has surprisingly limited resources. In 2012, sweeping budget cuts were introduced to the agency. As a result, spending levels and staff counts have yet to return to pre-2012 levels. When adjusted for inflation, a $500-million annual budget shortfall exists between 2012-13 and today. This level of underfunding doesn’t make sense. Not only does tougher enforcement result in a fairer system, it also more than pays for itself. The finance department’s own numbers show a ten-dollar return for every dollar invested in combating international tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance.
Here is the final quote.
When asked in our survey, over 8 out of 10 CRA tax professionals (81%) who responded agreed that “Tax credits, tax exemptions, and tax loopholes disproportionately benefit corporations and wealthy Canadians compared to average Canadians.”
If I could get your reactions to these quotes—if you were able to listen to them—I would really be grateful. I think, from the professionals themselves, we also have a measure of the challenges they face to reach this fairness that we want for the Canadian taxpayer.
Thank you.