Finance committee  I'm not sure I can speak specifically to the impact that would have. Certainly I would expect that like any other agency or department that's facing cuts, they would try to do the cuts in the areas that would have the least impact on the actual operations.

Finance committee  It was certainly part of our recommendation that the draft legislation be released for comment so that practitioners could provide input. That's an important part of the process. This means that before it actually gets tabled in the House, it's had input and it's not going to be

Finance committee  You're talking about income tax rulings and the length of time to issue an advance income tax ruling.

Finance committee  As we showed in our chapter, it has gone from an average of 60 days to an average of 101 days. One of the reasons given is that the transactions were becoming more complex, so by their very nature they're taking longer to handle the ruling request. Another reason, I believe, is t

Finance committee  Again, we haven't gone back to see if all the comfort letters have been addressed in this bill. I think the Department of Finance officials could give you a more accurate response there.

Finance committee  We certainly found in our report in 2009, after interviewing 54 practitioners, that the comfort letters were definitely an important part of the process. They keep the tax system working. Until the legislation is passed, it at least allows taxpayers to go ahead and do the transac

Finance committee  We haven't had any particular conversations about this bill, Bill C-48, in particular. We do follow up our recommendations. We've had both the Canada Revenue Agency and the Department of Finance provide an assessment of their progress with our recommendations, and as one of the f

Finance committee  Again, we haven't done a follow-up in terms of whether all the necessary technical changes have been included in Bill C-48. As I said in my opening statement, certainly it's a start. It does contain a number of the amendments. We had recommended that packages of technical chang

Finance committee  Mr. Chair, thank you for this opportunity to join this panel to discuss chapter 3 of our 2009 fall report in relation to Bill C-48, which is before you now. In our chapter on income tax legislation, we focused on activities within the Department of Finance Canada and the Canada

Public Accounts committee  Indeed, the government made such a promise. As you say, our mandate is not to make recommendations to the government. We rather make them to the Agency or to the Department, but not to the government, in general.

Public Accounts committee  Indeed, we could tell them that it would be a good idea to recommend that a bill be presented.

Public Accounts committee  These steps will bring about good results, but as long as the amendments have not been enacted, the problem will not be resolved.

Public Accounts committee  Exactly.

Public Accounts committee  If the bill is not passed, there will be no results.

Public Accounts committee  Indeed.