Finance committee  Thank you very much for the question. In calculating social benefits, the way the system generally works is that you're looking at an individual's income for the prior year. Individuals submit their tax return; their income is calculated, and that income is used by both the CRA

Finance committee  As I said, we provide the information to ESDC. ESDC is the department that does the calculation and, based on their legislation and regulations, they will determine how much an individual receives in GIS. That said, I do understand that the Minister of Finance has made a statem

Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  If it's several months, the viability of some businesses will be at stake here. They would have to lay off people they'd like to keep, as the pandemic continues. It's one of these things.... The pandemic has continued a lot longer than all of us expected, so there are certainly b

Finance committee  I'll pass that to my colleagues, Monsieur Lemieux and Cathy Hawara.

Finance committee  I'd be happy to begin answering that question. As the committee is probably aware right now, without the legislation we're in a situation in which individuals, on the individual side, aren't able to access the sickness benefit anymore. The same thing is true for the caregiving

Finance committee  Maybe I can start. Others are welcome to provide additional comments. Certainly part of our job is to work with other agencies when we have to administer something and there's legislation there. We look at it. We provide comments and try to make suggestions on potential improvem

Finance committee  I'm saying that's not our primary responsibility. We can provide comments on it. Certainly the justice representatives from the various departments are all participating in these processes, but the responsibility for the legislation ultimately falls, in the case of the individual

Finance committee  I'm trying to answer the question as accurately as possible—that we participate; we provide commentary; so therefore, we certainly feel—

Finance committee  Perhaps I could turn to my colleague Monsieur Lemieux to discuss the FINTRAC feedback.

Finance committee  Chair, I will.

Finance committee  Good afternoon, everyone, and good afternoon, Mr. Chair. I'm having some technical difficulties, as are some people in the agency today, so hopefully you can hear me loud and clear. Thank you for the invitation to appear before this committee today to provide you with additiona

Public Accounts committee  I think you're correct. It's a complex process. There are many things to consider. It's not just a binary thing, so we're going to review all those procedures and go from there.

Public Accounts committee  Heather, could you cover this? I don't have the answer for that.

Public Accounts committee  There is definitely room for improvement, and as a matter of fact we are speaking to IRCC right now and trying to figure out what kind of information sharing would be possible and what could be automated, with a view to helping people as much as possible to get the benefits they