Public Accounts committee  Madam Chair, maybe I'll turn to my colleague Mr. Vermaeten to respond to that question.

Public Accounts committee  I'll take that again, Madam Chair, but I will ask my colleague, Frank Vermaeten or one of the others, to respond. We feel quite confident that we have good outreach and education to make people aware of these benefits, the Canada child benefit being one, but it is an ongoing challenge.

Public Accounts committee  Madam Chair, I'll take a stab at that. It is an ongoing area that we're looking at. Indeed, in the Speech from the Throne, there was a reference to automated tax filing to make it easier for people to get their benefits. We have a few mechanisms in place that help on this front.

Public Accounts committee  Madam Chair, I'm happy to respond to that, although one of my colleagues may want to supplement my answer The reference in the Auditor General's report is to five minutes. Is that reasonable or is it not reasonable? My sense is that if you couple it together with the conclusion of the report, which is that we were able to administer and make the payments in a timely and accurate way, we are allowing our agents adequate time to make an initial assessment, or a more detailed one if that's required.

Public Accounts committee  As mentioned, this is a feature of the legislation, so we administer it on the basis of the legislation. However, we are looking at two things to help reduce the confusion that the Auditor General referenced. The first is to make sure that we're properly training our people and that they understand.

Public Accounts committee  If we're talking about the CCB program, I'm not aware of any analysis of common themes, etc., but I will confirm that with one of my colleagues. If possible, I suppose we could come back to the committee afterwards with numbers. For this program, I would be surprised if it was a very big number.

Public Accounts committee  I'm happy to take a stab at that, although Mr. Dompierre indicated that he wanted to also, so he may come in after me. Yes, there was a special top-up to the CCB as a result of the pandemic. I think the first part of your question, and maybe the second part as well, was why we saw an increase in the number of families that were eligible for it.

Public Accounts committee  Maybe I will turn it to my colleague, Mr. Vermaeten, to give you the specifics of what it was as a result of that enhanced level. I don't have that number at my fingertips.

Public Accounts committee  As a general comment, we're still doing our analysis of how much people might have received—this would apply to all benefits—that they weren't eligible for, whether because of fraud or something else. We will only really have a good estimate of that once we get all of the 2020 income tax data in.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm pleased to have the opportunity to appear before you today to talk about the Canada Revenue Agency's action plan on “Report 4—Canada Child Benefit—Canada Revenue Agency” of the 2021 reports of the Auditor General of Canada. I'm accompanied by three colleagues, whom you've already introduced.

Public Accounts committee  Madam Chair, I think it's important to recognize we have a very sophisticated, well-funded IT system here. We're quite confident in it. It's true one could always do more. We look forward to using some of the IT expenditures to improve our system. In fact, in some cases it will be ongoing maintenance and improvements to the existing system.

Public Accounts committee  I would note two points. Obviously the tax filing season is approaching on April 30. I would highlight a few things in a hypothetical way in terms of what goes on each year that would come into play if we were to extend the tax filing season. The most important thing I would flag is that we rely on tax filings to be able to deliver benefits—the child benefit, for example, or the GST credit—in the upcoming year.

Public Accounts committee  We do the best we can if we have to. It's an advantage for us if we have a long lead time to think about that. That's one consideration. From my perspective, the government has taken a number of steps to try to recognize the unique circumstances we're in during the pandemic to make it easier for people to file.

Public Accounts committee  If you're asking me as of right now if it's possible, I would say no. Is it technically possible in a given year to delay it? Yes, it is technically possible, with enough advance work.

Public Accounts committee  Madam Chair, perhaps I'll take that question for this part before going to the Department of Finance. I guess you've raised two issues. I won't repeat what the Auditor General said, but certainly we are interested in securing our systems as much as possible. We believe we have a secure system.