Finance committee  Thank you for the question. I will respond, but I will also invite my colleague Mr. Marsland to comment, since the Department of Finance negotiates these treaties. Our role is to administer them. We each play a role in this area. Our interaction with foreign authorities is governed by over 100 international agreements.

Finance committee  Thank you very much for your question. Right now, for a number of benefits—we can think about the Canada child benefit or the guaranteed income supplement—all the income-based benefits that we have are usually based on tax data. A person will file and then will get their benefits.

Finance committee  I'm not sure how far I need to back up. Basically, we would need to rewire the system, because the income information would not come from the same place. You would have two sources of data, potentially, from Quebec and from Ontario. I would say that the other consideration to take into account is timeliness.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Let's talk about the overall context in which it is done. For example, the Quebec government must be able to remit the tax revenue collected. We need to look at the full continuum of tax filing and tax collection in the same way we do for the GST. With respect to tax filing, we have a national system.

Finance committee  When you look at tax filing—

Finance committee  It is possible because it's being done elsewhere, in other provinces and territories, where the two forms have been combined. The only caveat I'd like to bring to your attention is that, given how complex the two tax regimes are and the differences between them, it's going to be a long questionnaire.

Finance committee  Thank you very much for your question. The agency is committed to providing the best possible services to taxpayers, both Quebecers and Canadians. That is why it has taken a number of steps to simplify the filing of tax returns and delivery of its services. The points I have raised do not lead to the conclusion that it is impossible to do.

Finance committee  I actually do have remarks, Mr. Chair.

Finance committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Thank you for the invitation to speak about Bill C-224. As the chair said, with me is Mr. Wayne Lepine, the director general responsible for federal and provincial relationships at the Canada Revenue Agency. Following my finance department colleague’s remarks, I would like to draw the committee’s attention to certain impacts relating to this bill.