Public Accounts committee  That's what I'm getting at. We're increasingly using an automated system in which systems specific to both departments can communicate with each other. It isn't necessary to have someone from CBSA talking to someone from the Department of Immigration. This poses a challenge, however, since each agency and department has its own system.

Public Accounts committee  The Treasury Board is paying very close attention to this issue and to a number of other issues. The Canada child benefit poses a challenge. However, I suspect that it isn't the biggest challenge facing the government. The Treasury Board is paying attention to this issue, and we'll continue to work with the other departments.

Public Accounts committee  That is a tremendous preoccupation for us at the agency. To be fair, we've had a lot of success in this, in that we have over 90% of tax filings submitted electronically. From our perspective, we're trying to do everything we can to make it as simple as possible for people to do it electronically.

Public Accounts committee  As we discussed earlier, as a component of this, we have a concern about the number of people who don't file and would be eligible for benefits. That's part of a bigger issue for us. We want to see people filing wherever possible, but it's a particular case for people who are not filing, because by not doing that, they become ineligible for the benefits.

Public Accounts committee  Perhaps, Madam Chair, I'll ask one of my colleagues to take on the question of how far back we can go.

Public Accounts committee  I was just going to respond, Madam Chair, to that question, but I think I would turn to my colleagues for the very specific rules in that case. As a general comment, in administering this program we have to recognize some of the complexities in the relationships and in the changes that happen.

Public Accounts committee  You probably have your best chance of getting a simple answer from me, so I'll start, Madam Chair. For the automated benefit application, which Mr. Vermaeten referred to earlier, we automatically register at birth. That applies in all provinces and one territory. An online application is done through My Account or on the website.

Public Accounts committee  Madam Chair, I'll take that question. In fact, as you referenced, one of the reasons that we like to have the filing deadline as early as possible is to give us some time to review and assess the benefits that are due to be paid before the start of the new benefit year in July.

Public Accounts committee  Madam Chair, I'll provide a general response to that, but maybe my colleague Mr. Vermaeten will have more precise numbers. I would say that overall we see roughly the same number of tax filings as we would in a normal year at this time. I'll maybe look to Frank to confirm that, but....

Public Accounts committee  Would the CERB in what way...? Sorry; just for clarification—

Public Accounts committee  I'd have to defer to my colleague to answer that question, so maybe Frank...or we can get back to the committee on any impact that the CERB may have had on people's eligibility for the CCB.

Public Accounts committee  Okay.

Public Accounts committee  That is actually a challenge for us. As we said, this is part of the Income Tax Act, and we must comply with its provisions. Generally speaking, we focus on two aspects. On the one hand, we determine whether the rules and processes are clear for our employees, whether the employees have received the training they need and whether communication is clear enough.

Public Accounts committee  The relationship between the two parents can sometimes change, and the agency must occasionally wait a certain amount of time to receive information on that change. We continue to improve this process in order to obtain recent information. However, there will always be processing delays.

Public Accounts committee  It is an interesting question that you raise. While people typically think of us as the tax collector—or some people do—a significant part of our activity is delivering benefits at both the federal and the provincial level. One of the issues that we come up against, which I referenced earlier, and the Auditor General will be helping us, is how confident we can be that people are engaging with the tax and benefit system in either filing returns or claiming the benefits that they're entitled to.