Thank you.
I'm looking at this report and I have many concerns, as some of my colleagues have already expressed. One of them is the fact that 20% of goods crossing the Canadian border are misclassified. For example, $136 million was refunded to importers in one fiscal year due to retroactive changes. I am looking at the fact that when there is a non-compliant importer, the penalties are so low: $150 for the first offence, $225 for the second offence, and $450 for the third and subsequent offences.
To me, there seems to be a better incentive for importers to potentially misclassify items. Once they have crossed the border and the Canada Border Services Agency has not inspected them, they can then come back four years later. In the absence of government documentation, we are then relying on the importer's documentation, and then we are paying out to the tune of $136 million in one fiscal year.
I know the agency is looking at reviewing the penalty, but we need to really strengthen the fact that we need to deter people from making these types of misclassifications.
When it comes to the penalties, what progress has the agency made in terms of where that will end?