Environment committee  I couldn't really tell you how many people are on a particular team, because as I said, we don't have people who are designated within a group. We have auditors who spend a good amount of their time working on performance audits that are issued under the banner of the commissioner of the environment and sustainable development, but it's not a group.

Environment committee  No, not at all, the group was not abolished. What we're doing is that we're taking the skills and specialties of people like Ms. Leach and Mr. McKenzie, who are here today, and spreading them out across our work. When we want to have sustainable development goals addressed in all of our work—

Environment committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Congratulations on your recent nomination to the chair of this very important committee. We prepared some slides and submitted them to the committee in preparation for our appearance today. I encourage you to keep them as reference tools for my office's mandate.

Public Accounts committee  I unfortunately don't have that. Maybe Philippe does, but really, where we're seeing the lost revenue is where the products are coming from a foreign vendor.

Public Accounts committee  I think you've categorized it well. That number is based on e-commerce that we looked at, and we did not look at physical goods that would enter through the low-value dollar shipment program. Yes, if you incorporate both, then this number is, as we said earlier, on the low end.

Public Accounts committee  It's really up to the committee to determine how how long it wishes to examine a matter. I agree with Mr. Rochon. My role is to provide you with high-quality information so you can make decisions. The question whether a legislative change is necessary is really for Parliament to decide.

Public Accounts committee  It's very hard to compare our tax system to those of different parts of the country and other countries. Each one has a unique tax system. The estimates we made during the audit were really based on available public market information. They're just estimates, an attempt to show the scope of the situation.

Public Accounts committee  For those kinds of details, I'll turn to one of my colleagues, Philippe Le Goff. He can describe the methodology we use in comparing the Quebec data.

Public Accounts committee  As we noted in our report, the tax system has not really kept pace with the rapidly evolving digital economy. The policy change question should be put to the deputy minister, who is here today. We checked to see whether the existing system was neutral. We found that it was unfair in some respects and offered the agencies some options for improving it.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you very much. As you mentioned, it is the first time that I have appeared before the committee to discuss a report. Unfortunately, the report was one that I was not involved in. It was planned, completed and tabled by my predecessor, the interim Auditor General Sylvain Ricard, but I'm very pleased to be here to discuss it.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for this opportunity to discuss our report on the taxation of e-commerce, which was tabled in Parliament on May 7, 2019. Joining me today are Philippe Le Goff, who was the principal responsible for the audit, and Mathieu Lequain, who led the audit team.

Public Accounts committee  It absolutely can. I'll selfishly ask all of you to let people know we're hiring. They should check out our website.

Public Accounts committee  I know Montrealers. I hear you. Mr. Sorbara, I can give you those numbers really quickly. They are $25 million and $6.6 million for a total of $31.6 million.

Public Accounts committee  Absolutely. Our ask was for $25 million. When you include employee benefit programs and accommodations, it's $31.6 million. However, the $25 million is the only amount that gets added to our funding on an ongoing basis.

Public Accounts committee  The 585 FTEs is without that additional funding. That is our normal workforce. We're usually somewhere between 575 and 600 people. The additional money we asked for would see us adding about 150 FTEs, or 150 individuals, to our workforce. Obviously that will be over time, and the split is between some auditors and support services to be able to continue to support our auditors.