Finance committee  As a general rule—and I am therefore not just talking about the KPMG case here—the court relies on the evidence and arguments of the Crown and taxpayers. The judge in charge asks questions, tries to shed light on the case and encourages the parties to reach a settlement. With the

Finance committee  Maybe I can give just two specific examples. There are country-by-country reports for multinationals that we are now receiving, as well as the Common Reporting Standard, which is worldwide banking information of Canadians that we are also now receiving. These dollars help give us

Finance committee  I do not think the minister was informed. However, I cannot say that because that does not fall under my purview.

Finance committee  The role of...

Finance committee  The minister's role is to establish the approach to be followed by the agency. I am responsible for audit programs. We have a protocol to follow for settlements, which is published on our website. We use criteria to make our decisions. For example, if it is an extreme case, we r

Finance committee  The agency is not always pleased with the judges' decision.

Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  I would say that our officials base their judgment on the facts of the case and the evidence provided.

Finance committee  I can assure you that no direction from me—or higher than me—was provided to the auditors with the carriage of the file.

Finance committee  They would be making the decision based on the facts in front of them.

Finance committee  I would like to begin by noting that this file was the responsibility of the appeals branch, but that several sectors of the agency were consulted to reach this conclusion. We do not consider amicable settlements to be amnesties. This aspect of the dispute is not optional. A set

Finance committee  Yes. If it's helpful, we risk-assess taxpayers, and one of the sources for a risk assessment is media coverage. Every time there is media coverage like that, I would like to presume that my team is already on it, but I don't presume. When there is media coverage like this or a le

Finance committee  I can tell you that when there's a public leak like that, that process takes place.

Finance committee  Just quickly, we recently updated statistics showing that at an operational or tactical level, we have increasing results, with more billings; we're into house flips; we're confirming residency status; and we're looking down the contracting pyramid at suppliers to make sure they'

Finance committee  We're still focusing on offshore tax avoidance. I can confirm that we currently have 53 active cases. Those cases involve approximately $400 million in revenues not reported to the agency. I think it's still a matter of time periods. Four years ago, the convictions were solely f