Mr. Speaker, the transparency of that answer does not impress the auditor general. It does not impress the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants and it sure does not impress overtaxed Canadians.
Bob Rutherford, vice-president of standards for the CICA, says that accounting rules which the government claims to be using simply do not exist. Apparently the finance minister has made them up.
The point is this. If Canadians tried to hide their money from the tax collector by setting up dummy accounts, they would go to jail. Why can the finance minister use accounting tricks that would get the rest of us thrown in jail?