Government Operations committee  It stands for “headquarters”.

Government Operations committee  Yes, more or less.

Government Operations committee  I cannot explain why. It is for historic reasons. The headquarters has always been in Ottawa, since income tax collection began, in 1917, I believe. The taxes were, in principle, to be temporary. Over time, offices have been opened up throughout the country. I am not going to make something up, because there is nothing else to say.

Government Operations committee  But you should bear in mind that the Quebec Revenue Department administers the GST in Quebec for the federal government. An agreement to that effect has been in force for several years.

Government Operations committee  As I mentioned, the GST is administered by the Government of Quebec for the federal government. The Quebec government is paid a contribution for the work it does. Apart from that, I cannot really answer your question. As I told you, I am not going to make something up. The situation is historic.

Government Operations committee  We have overcapacity in our tax centres. In Quebec, there are two tax centres: one in Shawinigan and the other in Jonquière. The one in Shawinigan is quite large in terms of operations, whereas the one in Jonquière is a bit smaller. Efforts to maintain the work and to use the overcapacity in our tax centres continue.

Government Operations committee  According to information we've submitted to the committee, on page 12, you will see that...

Government Operations committee  It is on page 12.

Government Operations committee  I'm rarely told that. This table shows the percentage of employees who are visible minorities. Based on the 2001 labour market availability census information collected by Statistics Canada, visible minorities make up 12.5% of this category. In 2004, 13.2% of our employees identified themselves as visible minorities.

Government Operations committee  That is the labour market availability. What we try to do is to, at the very least, match the labour market availability, and if possible exceed it.

Government Operations committee  No.

Government Operations committee  We can check to see if it's possible to obtain the turnover rates for visible minorities within our agency. I'm not sure we have that specific piece of information, but we can try and locate it.

Government Operations committee  At the agency, this is not done systematically. It is quite possible that other offices decide to use that approach. With respect to human resources, we have just completed a pilot project that did just that, but the project did not focus solely on visible minorities. We looked at all of the employees who left human resources over the last year.

Government Operations committee  Absolutely. We have assessed three groups of employees in human resources and employees who have left over the past year. We also conducted a survey of new employees who have just joined us and of employees who are eligible for retirement in two years, if they decide to take it.

Government Operations committee  In headquarters there is a group that does look at the aboriginal taxation issues. When you go to the service delivery points, whether that's Sudbury or Calgary, to the best of my knowledge that's part of the general work that the office does.