Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to say something to my colleague about the principle of transparency. There is another principle, that of the confidentiality of personal data. I've sat with her colleague Ms. Gaudreau on another committee, where there was a very intense debate on the importance of protecting Canadians' personal data. At the time, people were saying that government bodies were not sensitive enough to this problem.
I don't think it's my colleague's intention, but we could be opening a Pandora's box. Confidential taxpayer data could be revealed in parliamentary and, let's face it, partisan public inquiries. There is absolutely no reason to open such a Pandora's box. There are agencies that are capable of conducting such investigations and following up on them, whether by imposing fines or launching criminal proceedings against people who have contravened tax laws.
The main concern for my fellow citizens is that their privacy is not respected and they can therefore be scammed or become victims of identity theft. Many of my constituents are very happy to give money to all sorts of charities, but they are not necessarily aware of how those charities are run. When they donate to a charity that has a proper Canada Revenue Agency registration number, they have confidence.
Indeed, that number is now made public. About 15 years ago, this was really a problem, because people didn't know who they were dealing with. The fact that charity registration numbers have been made public ensures a degree of transparency. This measure has been very well received by the public and by the Canada Revenue Agency. Canadians now have more confidence in the organizations with which they do business.
However, this doesn't solve everything. Even if a charity meets all the criteria for a registration number, there may be irregularities in its management later on. It is at this point that the mechanism for notifying the Canada Revenue Agency of such irregularities becomes very useful. It was also very well communicated to the public at the time. If people had questions about a charity, it was explained to them how to go about notifying the Canada Revenue Agency.
If, on the other hand, the Agency were later to publish all the names and personal information of donors, this would cause harm to these people, who made donations in confidence and in a logical way. These people are not responsible for running charities.
So we need to put things in perspective. When we talk about privacy and personal information, I think it's up to an institution like the Canada Revenue Agency to deal with that. The agency is able to, under federal legislation...