Public Safety committee  I don't want to put myself forward as an expert with respect to these types of materials, Mr. Chair, but we have investigated this a little bit and we are aware that acetate tow, which is used for filters in tobacco products, don't come as filters, they come in huge packages that could be used and cut to any length, any size, and used for other filter media.

Public Safety committee  Actually I don't know that I'd want to take credit for knowing a great deal about contraband tobacco products since we generally treat the legal tobacco market. I can say that the counterfeit cigarettes are just a portion of the contraband, as we've heard from the members of the enforcement agencies today.

Public Safety committee  I will mention that, similar to my colleagues, we participate at the same meetings with them. However, CRA's focus is the legal tobacco market. We try to support their enforcement activities as best we can with information and initiatives. In terms of getting together with our colleagues, we have a great deal in common with the provinces, and we attend quite a few meetings with their organizations, steering committees, and senior revenue officials.

Public Safety committee  I'm sorry, but someone's coughing and I missed part of your question. Would you re-ask it?

Public Safety committee  There is nothing in the Excise Act of 2001 that gives the Canada Revenue Agency the right to deal with those products in any way. In all honesty too, some of these products are multipurpose, and determining what filter tool may be used and whether it's air filters, car filters, or cigarette filters would be difficult.

Public Safety committee  If I might, we certainly look into the amount of raw leaf purchased relative to how much was manufactured, how many tobacco products. As well, we look at imports of raw leaf to verify if it's considered appropriate for the amount of production on which excise duty was paid. If we deem that to be considerably different from what should have been paid, we will raise deemed assessments.

Public Safety committee  No, we don't actually match it to the tubes purchased, but we do monitor the amount of products that go into manufacturing tobacco. We monitor equipment, the raw leaf, the paper, the filter, that sort of thing. We have not yet started correlating filter material and paper with tobacco production.

Public Safety committee  One aspect I would mention is the recent proposed budget item for tobacco manufacturing equipment. That will allow us to now require that records be given to us. Of course, that affects the possession and import of that equipment, which means the less equipment that is available to illicit manufacturing, the less contraband we'll see.