Public Accounts committee  As the report noted, the analysis supporting the implementation of the program was done extraordinarily quickly. As you'd expect, a program of this magnitude and scope would normally take months of analysis and so on. We analyzed as much as we could in the time we had. We develo

Public Accounts committee  Yes. As we said in our response to the report and in the action plan, our intention is to perform a full evaluation of the Canada emergency wage subsidy and publish it in the report on federal tax expenditures, which is tabled with the main estimates. We will do as much as we can

Public Accounts committee  Again, it depends somewhat on the available data, but we will do as much as we can and be as comprehensive as we can to publish probably in February or March next year.

Public Accounts committee  If I understand the question correctly, Madam Chair, it's about how we prepare proposals for policies to be implemented. Typically, these are brought forward for approval in the context of cabinet confidence when they involve legislative changes to this program.

Public Accounts committee  I'm not sure, Madam Chair, that I would characterize the process that way. The processes and proposals are prepared. Recommendations are prepared by the public service. They are brought forward to ministers. It's not on a document-by-document basis that decisions are made. These

Public Accounts committee  It is essentially the nature of the document that dictates its protection. The document is a document that brings forward recommendations that require approval by ministers, and that is the nature that characterizes the document. It's not a decision in relation to the document; i

Public Accounts committee  Again, Madam Chair, I don't think it's a decision that's made. It's the nature of the document itself that dictates its status, and ultimately who decides what—

Public Accounts committee  When we provided all of the documents that are relevant to the Auditor General's work—

Public Accounts committee  Madam Chair, it is not my decision to make with regard to whether a cabinet confidence is released to the committee. There are legal provisions in place that protect those. It is not my decision to release them to the committee.

Public Accounts committee  I'm not sure I fully understand the question. It is not the department's decision whether or not those documents are made public. They are protected by cabinet confidence.

Public Accounts committee  That's certainly not my role. I think there has been discussion previously in the committee, Madam Chair, on seeking expertise regarding the application of cabinet confidence to documents.

Public Accounts committee  The last question was how many billions. The amount that has been paid out so far by the Canada Revenue Agency is, I believe, $74 billion. The estimates for the program were provided in last week's budget.

Public Accounts committee  Sure. Madam Chair, if I understand the question correctly, we report GST revenues. I think we report them net of the refundable GST credit, but as the question suggested, these become general revenues. They flow into the consolidated revenue account and are expended out. I thin

Public Accounts committee  I think our response to the committee, Madam Chair, was that there was no public figure available—and that was correct. There was no public figure available. As Mr. Sabia mentioned, we do many estimates of many aspects of the tax system, and we do these in the context of provid

Public Accounts committee  Maybe I could just add one—