Finance committee  At CRA, we administer the Income Tax Act, and it sets out pretty clearly what an eligible activity is and what an ineligible activity is with respect to the counting of those 14 hours. You mentioned a whole range of things. The travel back and forth to the doctor would not be eli

Finance committee  We take into account only those things that are set out in the Income Tax Act. We administer the program. Something such as exercise, as you said, to stay healthy, is not considered part of that. When there are complications and other health impacts, sometimes that does come into

Finance committee  Maybe I can say two things. First of all, yes, we are looking at this and doing a comparison of the last several years and post-May 2017, which you referred to. We are looking over time to see what's happened to acceptance rates, so certainly we'll look at that. It's going to ta

Finance committee  I think you're going to get a range of views on that. Based on the information that I've received from our staff, my assessment is that there have been a lot of advances that do reduce the time it takes for some people to manage their diabetes. That's not for everybody, but it ce

Finance committee  We exchange information with doctors. We send letters to make sure that we have information on an individual case and about whether or not it takes more than 14 hours to manage it. This is sometimes a difficult form for doctors to answer. Why? If you take a look at some types of

Finance committee  These are complex questions in a complex decision-making process. We run a fairly large program here. As the commissioner said, we gave out $1.3 billion of benefits for 2016-17, so it is a very big program. We're processing a lot of applications. I think it was 265,000 last year.

Finance committee  Yes, it's a CRA manager, in consultation.... It would be at a manager level. It certainly wouldn't be made at my level. It would be managers and people trained in this. We have a staff of nurses at headquarters who are in constant communication with the medical community. They'r

Finance committee  My boss, the commissioner, asked me whether there was an issue, whether there were any problems in terms of how we were processing them. I do my due diligence and I immediately check to find out whether we are doing this properly. We do calls out to the field. It takes a little w

Finance committee  There are two steps. The first step is the initial application to find out whether you're approved, and that usually takes between six and 10 weeks. We're within that range now, and it will fluctuate over the course of the year. Then there's the second part—

Finance committee  I said between six and 10 weeks. It's six to 10 weeks, and it will fluctuate throughout the year. There will be exceptions when, for example, we have follow-up with doctors or with the patient. It can take longer at times, but six to 10 weeks is our service standard. Internally

Finance committee  Then the second component is what's called the adjustment, the T1 adjustment, which we now do automatically if the individual asks. That's one of the improvements that we made to the application form. You can now put in a check, and we will automatically provide those refunds for

Finance committee  The communications with the medical community do change from time to time, absolutely, in all programs to try to administer the program as closely as possible to, in our case, the Income Tax Act—

Finance committee  Could I see it? Is it a letter to an individual?

Finance committee  What was the question?

Finance committee  This is a letter that refers to the assessment of the fact that in cases of well-managed diabetes, it doesn't take 14 hours of eligible activities to do the therapy.