Government Operations committee  It is not part of my area of responsibility. We can take the question back and have somebody write a response.

Government Operations committee  Absolutely. I couldn't have said it better myself, to be honest with you. But we will take that question back and provide you with some information. That really isn't my area of expertise, and although I have some knowledge, I wouldn't want to say things that are incorrect.

Government Operations committee  It is practically only in the National Capital Region that we are experiencing difficulty in finding and retaining qualified human resources staff and financial services staff. The mobility of highly qualified staff in these areas between various federal departments is high. So if someone wishes to work at Transport Canada, it is very easy to find employment in either one of these areas in the National Capital Region.

Government Operations committee  Are you talking about the chart on page 2?

Government Operations committee  To be honest with you, I have never done an analysis of that, so I would be guessing if I tried to answer the question.

Government Operations committee  No, you're not misreading the map. That is entirely correct. We do not at the current time have full-time employees in the territories. But that doesn't mean we don't have a presence. During tax season and prior to tax season, we send up teams that do outreach to various communities.

Government Operations committee  That's definitely our first option, absolutely. We invest a lot of time, a lot of effort, and a lot of money into the development of our staff. We would really consider it to be quite a loss if we got to the point of losing employees as a result of overcapacity. We're talking about our full-time employees.

Government Operations committee  That is a factor that can have an influence. Turnover rates at headquarters are higher than in other parts of the country. It is true that in certain regions, turnover rates are lower.

Government Operations committee  That is a good question, to which I don't really have an answer. Recruitment processes are targeted to external candidates. All of the offices receive many employment applications. In fact, we receive thousands of applications that we are unable to process.

Government Operations committee  No, we recruit throughout the whole year. We collaborate with certain colleges and universities to hire students under coop programs for three or four months before they return to their studies. Often, they come back to finish their internship with the CRA. In addition, we hire many students during the summer.

Government Operations committee  That is a very good question that the agency has also asked. There are a few significant factors that can be identified. It is certain that the annual investment of approximately $300 million in staff training and development is an important element. We are talking about significant sums of money.

Government Operations committee  No, we're not contemplating that, and I think we're very conscious of the fact that Canadian taxpayers, be they individuals, corporations, non-profits, trusts, or whatever the circumstance is, give us extremely personal data. The impact of maintaining privacy on that data is certainly one of the big things we focus on.

Government Operations committee  All of our tax centres have overcapacity, absolutely.

Government Operations committee  Part of it was driven, I think, over the years through the technological changes that were made to the processing of the tax returns. The example that you use of giving the taxpayers the ability to file electronically over the Internet was one driver. Certainly the implementation of 2-D bar coding on the tax returns has also had an impact in terms of the volume of data processing and manual work that has been done in the past in our tax centres.

Government Operations committee  No.