Mr. Speaker, it is appropriate that in the week when people have to file their taxes a question like this should come up.
I assure the hon. member and this House that the measures undertaken three weeks after this government took office are bearing fruit. We are succeeding in reducing the scope of the underground economy through a number of measures, in particular of course with greater enforcement.
We have done this in co-operation with the provinces. We now have agreements with every province in the country. We exchange information, carry out joint orders, work with them. We have agreements with the professional and trade associations in areas of particularly high non-compliance so that we can use the industries themselves.
I can assure the hon. member that the result of this has been a very substantial increase in the revenues coming to the government. I would like to point out that in the last month for which we have figures, revenues are up over 8.5 per cent of what they were a year ago. Some of this at least is due to the underground economy initiative, although I must admit that-