Environment committee  But I think it is important to have clarity around the scope of considerations—

Environment committee  —and that's what we attempt to do.

Environment committee  Yes, I just wanted to clarify, and I think the commissioner did clarify it at the end. As of the time of the audit in June 2018, we had looked at two of the benchmark measures. Our commitment was to look at them by the end of 2018 and we met that commitment.

Environment committee  Thank you very much for the question. I'll speak to the tax side. Maybe colleagues from Environment will wish to speak to the non-tax side. Over the past decade, governments have eliminated, phased out or rationalized eight out of nine income tax fossil fuel subsidies.

Environment committee  By our assessment, there are nine subsidies. We define a subsidy by reference to whether or not it is a tax expenditure. Every year, we publish a report and table it in Parliament, which deals with all tax expenditures. That identifies those that are specific to the fossil fuel sector.

Environment committee  On the last one, just recall that the commitment to the G20 is to rationalize, to phase out, inefficient fossil fuel subsidies. There is another tax expenditure, which is flow-through shares. It is not exclusive to the fossil fuel industry and essentially provides a mechanism that assists corporations in obtaining financing.

Environment committee  Well, it's a question of inefficiency—

Environment committee  Yes. Unfortunately, it's not something that's susceptible to a kind of simple definition.

Environment committee  What we do when we assess an inefficiency or efficiency of a measure is to look at things like the need for policy intervention and whether it's relevant. We look at whether it's effective in achieving its stated objective. We look at the compliance costs associated with it.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Good morning to all. I will begin my remarks with a brief overview of the role of the Tax Policy Branch. I will then say a few words about the Department of Finance's actions in relation to fossil fuel subsidies and the steps we are taking to address recent recommendations by the Auditor General of Canada.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think the question relates, as the chair notes, to an item in the budget on cash purchase tickets, which is a measure related to deliveries of grain to licensed elevators. The budget announced a consultation on the continued utility of that measure coming out of the review of tax expenditures.

Finance committee  That's correct, Mr. Chair.

Finance committee  Well, I guess we're in the process of costing those items. I'm not sure I can comment on the specifics.

Finance committee  Perhaps I may, Mr. Chair. Thank you for the question. I think the answer lies a little bit in each. First, I'd say that the department continually reviews, with the Canada Revenue Agency, the tax system looking at ways to improve the efficiency of the tax system from a broader perspective to ensure that tax measures, tax expenditures, and so on work as effectively as possible to identify areas that need to be responded to in response to court decisions.

Finance committee  I'm not sure we have done that kind of assessment in recent years. Periodically, when you go back over time, there have been significant reviews of the tax system, going back to the 1960s and so on. I don't think we've done that kind of assessment in recent years.