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View Diane Lebouthillier Profile
Lib. (QC)
Thank you very much.
Hello to all my colleagues.
Mr. Chair, I would like to take this opportunity, before beginning my presentation, to wish you a happy birthday.
Thank you for this invitation to provide details on the Canada Revenue Agency's strategies to combat tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance.
Let me begin by saying that the Government of Canada and the CRA are firmly committed to combatting tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance on all fronts. And we are all committed to making things much more difficult for those who choose not to meet their tax obligations.
In fact, since 2016, the Government of Canada has made investments that have helped provide the CRA with better data, better methodology and, ultimately, better results.
In particular, these investments have enabled the agency to develop a strategy that promotes global data sharing. Let's face it, tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance are complex global problems.
The CRA is working with international partners through various multilateral organizations, including the Organization for Economic Co‑operation and Development, or OECD, and its forum on tax administration, the FTA. I was pleased to see that Mr. Bob Hamilton, commissioner of the CRA, was appointed chair of the FTA in August 2020.
As a result of its modern and collaborative strategy, Canada is member to 93 tax treaties and 24 international tax information exchange agreements. In fact, Canada is one of more than 70 countries that exchange information through the country‑by‑country reporting system.
In addition, Canada participates in the electronic funds transfer reporting program, which is related to international electronic funds transfers over $10,000. And with the implementation of the common reporting standard in 2016, Canada, alongside nearly 100 other jurisdictions, benefits from financial institution data that identifies financial accounts held by non-resident clients for tax purposes.
With these improved resources and tools, the CRA is now able to focus on large multinationals, high net worth networks, the underground economy, cryptocurrency and real estate transactions.
The CRA is now seeing these signs of success because of the investments made by the Government of Canada.
In recent years, the CRA has assessed the equivalent of more than $12 billion each year through audits, more than 60% of which were related to tax avoidance by large multinationals and aggressive tax planning by high net worth individuals.
And I must note that these investments have generated approximately $5 billion in additional federal tax revenue, as of March 2021.
Additionally, the CRA's criminal investigations program has enhanced its ability to investigate the most serious tax crimes. It is important to note that the agency investigates complex cases in collaboration with its partners in the Department of Finance and the Department of Justice to close what may be perceived as legal loopholes. And I must remind you that the CRA has shifted its focus to more hard-hitting investigations, which result in more jail time and higher fines.
However, we must never forget that tax evasion often involves very complex domestic and international money transfer structures, which require the CRA to complete lengthy and time-consuming intelligence gathering processes.
I also want to note that we are increasingly seeing high net worth taxpayers using the court system when they are audited in order to avoid providing documents and information to the agency. And I want to emphasize that the volume of complex litigation is up significantly from previous years, with approximately 3,000 active cases considered high level in complexity.
As a result, first announced in the 2020 fall economic statement and confirmed in budget 2021, the Government of Canada has committed to invest $606 million over five years, beginning in 2021‑22, to continue this complex work.
These investments will close the compliance gap for high net worth individuals, strengthen technical support for high-risk audits, improve the CRA's ability to identify tax evasion involving trusts, improve the CRA's ability to stop fraudulent or unjustified GST/HST refunds, and, finally, improve the criminal investigations program.
In addition to the financial investments from budget 2021 legislative changes will also be put in place to strengthen the rules on transfer pricing, oral testimony, base erosion and profit shifting, and mandatory disclosure rules.
Before I conclude, I would like to wish the chair of this committee, Mr. Wayne Easter, a very happy retirement.
I want to thank you personally for your outstanding work on behalf of Canadians. We will miss you.
Mr. Chair, I am proud to say that the Government of Canada and the CRA have shown determination and innovation in creating effective and proactive approaches to identifying those who avoid paying their fair share of taxes or who are taking steps to do so.
Thank you.
Ted Gallivan
View Ted Gallivan Profile
Ted Gallivan
2021-06-10 15:34
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Through the government's investments, which have been announced in federal budgets since 2016, the CRA has been able to equip itself with tools and resources that allow collaboration and exchange of data at a global scale and provide much more transparency for Canadians.
Because of these investments by the Government, the CRA has benefited from better data, better partnerships, and ultimately, better results in its fight against tax evasion.
Canada is one of more than 70 countries that exchange information via country-by-country reporting. Since 2015 Canada has participated in the sharing of data related to international electronic funds transfers of over $10,000. Additionally, with the implementation of the common reporting standard in 2016, Canada and nearly 100 other jurisdictions have been able to benefit from data from financial institutions that identify financial accounts held by customers who are non-residents for tax purposes.
Thanks to budgetary investments since 2016, the CRA has observed excellent signs of success. In fact, the agency has identified over $12 billion in gross audit assessments every year, over 60% of which is related to tax avoidance by large multinational corporations and aggressive tax planning by wealthy individuals. While the CRA had committed to finding an additional $5 billion over five years, we actually achieved that goal a year early, despite the pandemic. In addition, our proven results demonstrate that we're taking the right tax cases to the Tax Court of Canada, the Federal Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada.
Of course, there is still work to be done, but we have a proven track record to show that we are making it increasingly difficult for non‑compliant individuals to continue their activities.
As part of the fall economic statement 2020, and confirmed in budget 2021, the government committed to investing an additional $606 million over five years, starting this fiscal year. Notably, we are working to close the high-net-worth compliance gap, bolster technical support on high-risk audits and enhance the criminal investigations program. These investments will allow the CRA to fund new initiatives and extend existing programs targeting international tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance.
The Government of Canada's continual investment in fighting tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance promotes an international exchange of information that is both modern and collaborative, and ultimately ensures that all Canadians pay their fair share.
View Gabriel Ste-Marie Profile
BQ (QC)
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I have some questions for the Department of Finance.
My regards to you, Mr. McGowan, and to your colleagues as well.
Clearly, it's important to avoid double taxation in a company when there's real economic activity. This is usually written into the tax treaty between Canada and another country.
Why, in the case of almost all tax havens, has this agreement been extended to include tax information exchange agreements?
Stephanie Smith
View Stephanie Smith Profile
Stephanie Smith
2021-06-10 16:22
I think you're referring to the domestic law provision that allows exempt surplus to be repatriated free of tax if it comes from a jurisdiction with which Canada has a tax treaty, or a tax information exchange agreement.
The underlying tax policy reason for that provision is to ensure that Canadian corporations can compete competitively and pay the same level of taxes in the jurisdictions in which they are operating. There are rules around the foreign affiliates system to ensure that only active business income can be repatriated tax-free. Any income that is passive investment income is taxed on an accrual basis.
View Michael Cooper Profile
CPC (AB)
Thank you, Madam Co-Chair.
I will direct my questions to the Department of Health officials.
The question I have relates to the federal monitoring regulations within the context of sharing monitoring data with law enforcement in instances where the Criminal Code safeguards are not followed. More specifically, it's my understanding that right now there are two streams of monitoring data. In about a half of the provinces and territories, MAID practitioners are expected to report to the federal government through a designated provincial or territorial body, in which those governments would have access to such data. However, in the other half of the provinces and territories, MAID practitioners report directly to the federal government.
Can you speak to that issue of sharing federally collected monitoring data with local enforcement agencies?
Abby Hoffman
View Abby Hoffman Profile
Abby Hoffman
2021-06-07 20:25
Sure, and I'll keep this fairly brief.
First of all, I'll say that the federal government is not in the business of enforcing the Criminal Code. This does fall to provinces, and it falls to a combination of public authorities and self-regulating professions.
I will say, though, that the jurisdictions where the reporting is through a provincial so-called designated recipient—in other words, we receive the reports in bulk from those provinces—represent the overwhelming majority of the population and MAID cases in the country.
That's only to say that, with the adequacy of the reports from a Criminal Code-MAID legal framework perspective, it's not difficult at all for provinces to examine that data and make their own assessments about compliance with the Criminal Code.
View Michael Cooper Profile
CPC (AB)
How can Canadians be confident that the criteria and safeguards are respected in each province and territory on a consistent basis?
Abby Hoffman
View Abby Hoffman Profile
Abby Hoffman
2021-06-07 20:26
I mentioned this before. When we report, we're reporting on what the providers are saying about each and every eligibility criteria and each and every safeguard that's spelled out in the legal framework.
If you're asking if we have monitors out there or if provinces, for that matter, have on-the-ground monitors who are validating that data, the answer to that question is no. This is very similar to how things work in the health care system generally. People who feel aggrieved or wronged can complain. There are medical oversight bodies in Ontario. The coroner's office investigates and so on—
View Kyle Seeback Profile
CPC (ON)
I saw the sign, so I have less than a minute now.
As we look to craft a report on this, is there any data you can share or table with the committee or any lessons you've gleaned from these other pilots that we can look at as part of our report?
Catrina Tapley
View Catrina Tapley Profile
Catrina Tapley
2021-06-02 17:47
We will table the Atlantic immigration evaluation with the committee. As well, I think we have some important statistics on the current immigration landscape, how many people are staying in cities, how many people are in communities themselves, just as good background information. The AIP evaluation would, I would think, certainly be helpful.
Hassan Yussuff
View Hassan Yussuff Profile
Hassan Yussuff
2021-06-01 11:12
Thank you, Chair.
First let me thank the committee for the opportunity to present to you today.
I represent the Canadian Labour Congress, Canada's largest central labour body in the country, and it speaks on national issues on behalf of three million working men and women from coast to coast. The CLC, of course, supports Bill C-253, and I want to thank the members who voted to advance this bill.
For years, the CLC has advocated changing the bankruptcy laws in our country. Workers and pensioners should be first in line, not last, when it comes to paying creditors. Workers pay for their defined benefits, pensions and other post-retirement employment benefits by deferring part of their compensation. Employers have a legal obligation to pay these promised pensions in retirement. It is totally unacceptable that earned benefits are taken away from pensioners, through no fault of their own, at a time in their lives when they are least able to adjust. Pensioners cannot simply go back to work when their pensions are cut. They need the post-retirement drug coverage and benefits that they have earned through working for a lifetime.
This tragedy has gone on too long. It has occurred too often. It cannot go on any longer. It is time to fix this problem.
The insolvency process is rigged against working people. The recent Laurentian University example shows how small unions are isolated and besieged by CCAA proceedings. Workers are threatened with devastating job losses unless they agree to make deep concessions to wages, pensions and benefits.
The CLC believes that public institutions should be excluded altogether from the CCAA and the BIA. The federal insolvency laws are meant for commercial corporate reorganizations. They were never meant to provide cover for provincial governments that refuse to live up to their fiscal obligations and expect workers and pensioners to pay the costs. The CLC would prefer that the claims of workers and pensioners be moved to the front of the line, as Bill C-253 seeks to do.
If there is no consensus to do so, the CLC believes that all parties should consider granting pensioners' and employees' claims the status of “preferred claim”. This would place them immediately behind the secure creditors in priority of claims, but ahead of unsecured creditors. We believe that treating employees' claims as preferred claims will materially improve outcomes for workers and pensioners.
However, getting the data to establish this is not easy. Currently the data is controlled by the big accounting firms—especially Ernst & Young, KPMG, Deloitte and PricewaterhouseCoopers —that act as monitors in CCAA proceedings and trustees in bankruptcies. There is a clear public policy purpose for making this data available for researchers. We are seeking aggregate anonymized data for large business insolvencies in which pension deficits are involved. We are not seeking commercially sensitive data. In our view, the superintendent of bankruptcy should be required to obtain this data from monitors and make it available to researchers.
We also recommend that the federal government conduct a feasibility study to establish a national mandatory pension insurance scheme for Canada. This study should form the basis of discussions with the provinces to establish a national scheme to rescue stranded pensions.
Finally, the government must stop company executives from enriching themselves and shareholders when there is a serious pension deficit.
The 2017 Sears Canada CCAA filing and liquidation was an outrage. Beginning in 2010, Sears paid $1.5 billion to shareholders in dividends and share buybacks. By doing so, Sears paid five and a half times more to its shareholders than it would have cost to entirely erase the deficit in its DB pension plan. Sears' decision in 2013 to pay a $500-million dividend when the pension deficit stood at $313 million would alone have been enough to eliminate the deficit. Instead, Sears Canada pensioners outside of Ontario were forced to accept cuts in benefits. This is a profound injustice. It should never be permitted to happen again.
Thank you very much. I look forward to any questions that committee members may have.
I wish all the best to you.
View Rachel Blaney Profile
NDP (BC)
Okay, fair enough; I think that's good. It's not really answering the question, so I'm just going to move on.
In the same report, the Native Women's Association also talked about identifying and assisting indigenous victims and survivors of human trafficking and exploitation and how that effort has been greatly hindered by a lack of disaggregated and cross-jurisdictional data.
We hear this again and again. In every report that we do, data continues to be the big challenge. I'm wondering if there's been any work done on that and if the importance of indigenous ownership of the data collected in relation to the indigenous experience has been recognized. I also wonder how the fact of cross-jurisdictional data can be addressed. This continues to be an issue.
I only have one minute left, so I would really appreciate it if whoever can answer that best would please step up. We don't have a lot of time.
Nathalie Levman
View Nathalie Levman Profile
Nathalie Levman
2021-06-01 13:04
I'm wondering if you would like to hear from Statistics Canada on these issues. There is data out there and a lot of it has been spearheaded by indigenous groups, but I think this is really a question for Statistics Canada. I note that they're not here.
Hamid Benhmade
View Hamid Benhmade Profile
Hamid Benhmade
2021-05-28 14:13
Ladies and gentlemen, my colleague Claude Vaillancourt and I would like to thank you for inviting us to appear before the committee on behalf of the Réseau québécois sur l'intégration continentale.
Currently, as you know, the debate on the waiver of intellectual property rights on anti-coronavirus vaccines reveals a divide between those who are for the waiver and those who are against the waiver.
As my colleagues reminded us earlier, the waiver has been officially endorsed by 58 governments and is supported by 100 countries. A small number of powers are opposed; they include Brazil, Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom and the European Union.
Ladies and gentlemen, whether we are for or against the waiver, one thing is certain: no one can deny that vaccine nationalism may well harm all the investments that have been made to contain the pandemic since it began. That a number of anti-coronavirus vaccines have been produced in less than a year is an unprecedented scientific accomplishment. However, that success, laudable though it is, is presently undermined by unequal, troubling and worrying access to the vaccines. That is why the Réseau québécois sur l'intégration continentale is calling for property rights on the anti-coronavirus vaccines to be suspended for two fundamental reasons. First, for reasons that are humanitarian, not economic, and second, for reasons that are purely economic.
First and foremost, it is time to put humanitarian issues before all other considerations. It is unjust that the least fortunate, basically those from developing countries, should remain at the mercy of pharmaceutical giants, when we know full well that most subsidies intended to support research into the coronavirus come from public funds.
Here we are once more, privatizing profits and socializing losses. The public is paying twice for the same vaccine. We pay first to finance the research and development and we pay again to acquire the doses we need.
Because developed countries have obtained more than half of all the contracts for vaccines, many developing countries will not have mass vaccination before 2025. A delay of that kind could set the scene for potentially dangerous variants in the future and cost many their lives.
Economically, the vaccine war is likely to cost more than the war against the pandemic. That is the conclusion of research published by the National Bureau of Economic Research in the United States. In fact, if countries of the North become vaccinated and countries of the South remain largely excluded from vaccination, the global economy will sustain losses of more than $9.2 trillion in 2021, almost half of which will be absorbed by advanced economies, including Canada.
Because of the recession that the pandemic is imposing on less-advanced economies, exporters and importers in the advanced economies, of which Canada is one, would be prey, first, to markets that are stagnating or even declining, and second, to global value chains that are more and more disrupted. This is why ensuring free and universal access to anti-coronavirus vaccines, and doing so today, is not only an altruistic and moral act, it is also an economic necessity.
In the light of these factors, which we invite Canada to consider, our network urges the Government of Canada to support the waiver of intellectual property rights on vaccines and to promote it in international discussions.
In the long term, lifting property rights on vaccines against COVID-19 must be followed by the dissemination of knowledge. Some countries in the South have shown that they have a great capacity for producing generic medications. But restrictions on importing them in the TRIPS and the extension of protection for brand-name medications in various free trade agreements, have made it difficult to disseminate essential data so that the medications can be produced and made available.
Ladies and gentlemen, whether the issue is saving lives or relaunching economies, free and universal vaccination is currently the only way we have to achieve it. The extraordinary circumstances of the pandemic call for extraordinary action.
Thank you for your attention.
View Richard Cannings Profile
NDP (BC)
Thank you. I'll finish with what will be a quick question, hopefully, on data. I want to thank the analysts by jogging my memory in their notes for this meeting.
As you may remember, Mr. Chair, in the last Parliament, we did a study on energy data because it was noted that energy data was very difficult to access in Canada—most of it came from the National Energy Board, and a lot of it was not very timely. You couldn't walk it across provincial boundaries, so most analysts ended up using data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
I now know there's the new Canadian Centre for Energy Information, led by StatsCan and NRCan. I'm wondering if someone could give me an update on where that project is. Are people using it? Is the data coming in as we, from the committee, wanted it to do, so that it is comprehensive, easily accessible and, most of all, timely? We were getting two-year-old data most of the time.
Jean-François Tremblay
View Jean-François Tremblay Profile
Jean-François Tremblay
2021-05-28 14:41
The portal is up and running. I've been using it myself. It works very well. When I have discussions with stakeholders, including universities and so on, they all mention how useful it is to have such a tool. I don't have the numbers on how many people actually have accessed it and access it on a regular basis, but that's something we can do. Also, at some point, if the committee specifically wants a briefing on how to use it, what exactly is there and what we're thinking for the future, we would be more than pleased to do that. I'm sure our scientists and our data group would be more than pleased to brief the committee.
View Tony Van Bynen Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you.
Throughout this entire study and even through our previous study, we heard from numerous witnesses about the importance of sharing health data across Canada. While we've mostly heard about this in the context of COVID-19, I think it's applicable to other health-related contexts.
Do you see a benefit in such a system, and if so, would it impact the efforts to prevent and to manage diseases across the country?
Theresa Tam
View Theresa Tam Profile
Theresa Tam
2021-05-21 11:55
Mr. Chair, that is a very important question.
I think public health policy should be driven by data. We have had data presented, and it has to come from the local level up to the national level, so I do think we've seen data improve over time. This is the first pandemic where we're having case-by-case data reported nationally through the pan-Canadian health data strategy. With the safe restart agreements and the resources being provided to the provinces and territories, we have seen improvements in the data being gathered, including on race, indigeneity and occupation. That has improved, and that kind of improvement must be taken forward as we look to keep going and strengthening that data system.
Anthony Farrell
View Anthony Farrell Profile
Anthony Farrell
2021-05-12 16:49
Thank you for the invitation to speak today. As already noted, I'm a professor in land and food systems in the department of zoology at UBC. I hold a Canada research chair tier one in fish physiology, culture and conservation. I'm a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and a fellow of the Canadian Geographical Society. I obtained my Ph.D. in zoology at UBC many years ago. I've held academic positions previously at biology departments at the University of New Brunswick and Mount Allison University in New Brunswick, and Simon Fraser University in British Columbia.
In almost a 50-year research career, I've focused predominantly on the physiology of a crucial life support system in fishes, which is their cardio-respiratory system. I work predominantly with B.C. salmonids, but I have researched fish on every continent, including Antarctica, studying over 100 different fish species. I've published over 470 peer-reviewed journal publications, 31 co-edited book volumes, and a three-volume encyclopedia of fish physiology.
My research collaborations are wide in B.C. They have included Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the Pacific Salmon Commission, the Pacific Salmon Foundation, Go Fish BC, commercial fishers, first nations and industry. Among my publications, about 140 of them deal broadly with the conservation physiology of salmon, which is a passion for me. About 50 of the publications deal with assessing sublethal consequences of infections, diseases and toxicants. I was the expert who would have investigated the consequences to salmon of experimental pathogen infections for the strategic salmon health initiative led by Dr. Miller-Saunders and Dr. Riddell. In fact, I've co-authored 21 publications with Dr. Miller-Saunders.
In terms of aquaculture, I was a member of the Honourable John Fraser's B.C. Pacific Salmon Forum. Also, I was a member of Dr. Mona Nemer's Independent Expert Panel on Aquaculture Science, which reported to DFO.
At the request of the provincial Minister of the Environment I was commissioned to review the 2019 Newfoundland and Labrador south coast mortality event of cultured Atlantic salmon. That was authored by Burke, Gardner and Farrell.
Thus, beyond basic science discovery, I seek direct application of my research and knowledge to issues such as salmon conservation; assessing sublethal consequences of infections, diseases and toxicants to salmon; and also sustainable salmonid aquaculture.
If you're interested, I have three messages that I will happily expand on, as time allows.
My first is a comment. I believe, having watched earlier versions of these meetings, that crucial peer-reviewed literature, that which is relevant to wild salmon management because it has investigated the actual impacts to salmon of deliberate disease infections, is being ignored by certain communications to this committee.
The second one is a recommendation of sorts to DFO. DFO needs to make its information and data pertaining to both aquaculture and to wild salmon more readily available, and in that I mean more user-friendly, which is the case in Norway.
My third and last point is that aquaculture decision-making must become more locally based, particularly in B.C. It needs to be evenly applied from coast to coast to coast. To do so, DFO will need to devolve some of its regulatory powers to the local peoples, as is the case in Norway.
Thank you very much.
View Patricia Lattanzio Profile
Lib. (QC)
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Therrien, for your testimony this morning. It was quite informative.
What I'm drawing from it is that there's a constant need of striking a balance between individual human rights, public confidence and economic growth. It's going to be quite a difficult task, because technology is forever evolving and it's going at a very fast pace. In my opinion, a restudy is more than warranted as we do not know when we will get Bill C-11.
On the question of cross-border data, that's of interest to me because given the nature of cross-border data, as it flows, it adheres to international best practices and standards, which will be instrumental for ensuring Canadian competitiveness.
Is it correct to say—and I want to go back to that European notion you were talking about earlier—that the EU data protection regulation remains the international gold standard? How can Canada ensure equivalency with this regulation? That would be my first question.
Why is it in Canada's interests to retain the equivalency with the EU?
Daniel Therrien
View Daniel Therrien Profile
Daniel Therrien
2021-05-10 12:47
The government certainly cited the desirability of Canada maintaining adequacy status in the EU as one impetus for Bill C-11. Indeed, maintaining adequacy is important. It allows data flows between Canada and the EU without specific mechanisms, like special contracts and the like.
Clearly, for Canada maintaining adequacy is helpful in order to maintain a freer flow of data between Canada and the EU. Beyond the EU, as I've said, we live in an interconnected world, and obviously, we have a neighbour to the south with whom we have very significant fundamental commercial relations, so data also needs to flow there.
I think that's all good, but we need to.... Hopefully, in the context of the review of Bill C-11, we can look at ways to allow these data flows, but in a way that recognizes that when data leaves Canada, the risks are higher.
I'm not advocating for ways to prevent these data flows, but certainly, in the submission you will now be able to read, we make certain recommendations on how to enhance the protection of personal information when it does leave Canada, while still allowing that.
View Pat Kelly Profile
CPC (AB)
That's a fantastic point. Hopefully we'll have the minister here on this study at some point, and the minister should answer that question.
It would seem to me that complexity shouldn't enter into it. If you ask for a document and your corporate structure is too complicated to comply, then that should be on the filer.
Debi Daviau
View Debi Daviau Profile
Debi Daviau
2021-05-06 16:11
Mr. Kelly, we used to have international tax units that were very well organized and could work together more effectively to produce those kinds of documents, but those units were broken down some 10 or so years ago in favour of interspersing these tax experts within more generalized teams. That has reduced the capacity of employees at the CRA to be able to deliver on getting international tax avoiders to pay their fair share.
View Sean Fraser Profile
Lib. (NS)
View Sean Fraser Profile
2021-05-06 16:15
Thank you very much, Mr. Cohen. I'll use some of the examples you discussed, particularly in the global context of this problem, for my next question to Ms. Daviau.
Ms. Daviau, you mentioned that one of the things we continue to need to do is explore further initiatives on the international stage and co-operate with our global partners to ensure that we can stamp out tax evasion globally. What actions can the federal government in Canada take to help contribute to the global solution to the issue of tax evasion?
Ryan Campbell
View Ryan Campbell Profile
Ryan Campbell
2021-05-06 16:16
The biggest issue that has been advocated by auditors at the Canada Revenue Agency, based on their work, is to focus on corporate tax evasion. The scale is much larger. The PBO has identified that as much as $25 billion a year could be accessible or unlocked from tax havens if the right provisions were in place. In order to do that, it's really necessary to reorient the way the tax system is structured and to reform the current state.
Right now when an international corporation makes a sale, they have some discretion to transfer the profit or to modify the price within internal supply chains to book the value of that sale in a low-tax jurisdiction. From the standpoint of CRA auditors, it's a game of cat and mouse to try to figure out exactly what the fair market value of that transaction was and determine whether or not it was on the level.
In order to tip the scales back in favour of companies being taxed fairly everywhere, there's a specific combination of different reforms that can be put in place, or broad principles, a combination of which would solve the problem.
One is a formulary allocation of profits, which is basically a change in criteria that are currently in use in Canada that determine how corporations' profits are booked from province to province.
The other is unitary treatment to make sure that when these transactions happen between a parent company and a subsidiary, leading to this transfer pricing and profits being booked in low-tax jurisdictions instead of where the commerce actually happens, the corporations are treated globally as a unitary entity—
View Luc Berthold Profile
CPC (QC)
That seems to be a political comment to me. That is why I wanted to let you know. The auditor general's comments are usually very well documented and based on specific elements.
I do not disagree with what you said, but I wanted to know why it was indicated in that way. This is literally a comment on government policy. This comment is more political than based on facts.
I am just making a quick comment, but I don't blame you for it. I also think this was an absolutely essential program. It was worth mentioning this element.
Mr. Hamilton, I wanted to talk to you about communication among departments. I saw in your action plan that you were going to put in efforts to improve that communication.
I recently received from the minister a letter about a completely different issue. I am talking about the famous issue between Service Canada and the Canada Revenue Agency concerning the Canada recovery caregiving benefit, or CRCB. For people to be able to obtain answers, data must be shared between a CRA agent and a Service Canada agent.
Don't you think it is high time for the two organization to talk to each other and find a solution to those communication and data sharing issues, since those problems have been surfacing more and more frequently?
Bob Hamilton
View Bob Hamilton Profile
Bob Hamilton
2021-05-04 12:12
That is indeed an issue for us in general.
In the action plan, we mentioned a few changes concerning situations where it is necessary to obtain information from another department.
For example, at the Department of Immigration, it is important to have information on newcomers, as well as on people emigrating from Canada. So we exchange information with the Canada Border Services Agency, or CBSA, but—
View Luc Berthold Profile
CPC (QC)
Do those exchanges have to be done from person to person? Can the information be obtained electronically?
Bob Hamilton
View Bob Hamilton Profile
Bob Hamilton
2021-05-04 12:13
That's what I'm getting at. We're increasingly using an automated system in which systems specific to both departments can communicate with each other. It isn't necessary to have someone from CBSA talking to someone from the Department of Immigration.
This poses a challenge, however, since each agency and department has its own system. I hope that we'll gradually develop systems that can communicate with each other. We've already made a great deal of progress in this area, but there's still a lot to do. This is important for the future, given the largely digital economy.
We have processes, but we need to improve them and automate them more for Canadians. You're right about that.
View Luc Berthold Profile
CPC (QC)
In your opinion, is the Treasury Board paying enough attention to this issue? Is it putting enough pressure on different departments to find a solution quickly?
Bob Hamilton
View Bob Hamilton Profile
Bob Hamilton
2021-05-04 12:14
The Treasury Board is paying very close attention to this issue and to a number of other issues.
The Canada child benefit poses a challenge. However, I suspect that it isn't the biggest challenge facing the government.
The Treasury Board is paying attention to this issue, and we'll continue to work with the other departments.
View Matthew Green Profile
NDP (ON)
As a follow-up, according to the OAG's report other branches of the agency and other federal departments were likely to have information that could support a benefit application—for example, the renewal of a resident card. Access to this information would have to be enabled to access eligibility with higher levels of confidence.
Is this information not accessible due to legal restrictions on sharing information between CRA and departments or even between branches of the CRA, or could this information be easily accessible?
Frank Vermaeten
View Frank Vermaeten Profile
Frank Vermaeten
2021-05-04 12:32
Perhaps I could turn to my colleague Heather Daniels with respect to the privacy-sharing rules.
I think it's very case-specific. In some cases, there are going to be limitations in terms of whether the other department is able to share that information. At other times, it's a system issue: Can the systems talk to each other? In other cases, there's definitely progress that we can make in some of these issues, as the OAG pointed out. We're working on that on a number of fronts.
Could I turn to Heather and ask her whether she wanted to contribute anything to this?
Heather Daniels
View Heather Daniels Profile
Heather Daniels
2021-05-04 12:33
I would agree. I believe Mr. Vermaeten covered the scenarios. Often there are privacy issues with respect to sharing of information, so there are limitations. In some cases, we can develop a memorandum of understanding, an MOU, with another department to facilitate the process of information sharing, as we've recently done with Canada Border Services in our agreement to receive information on exit data.
We are making much progress in respect of sharing information with other departments.
View Kody Blois Profile
Lib. (NS)
View Kody Blois Profile
2021-05-04 12:42
Okay. Talk to me about the information, because of course there are broader conversations going on right now about the information sharing between provinces and territories and the federal government around health care writ large, given the fact that we're in a pandemic.
Is the information that you receive from the provinces and territories generally all in the same standard form, or does each province or territory have a bit of a different way in which they send that information to the federal government?
Frank Vermaeten
View Frank Vermaeten Profile
Frank Vermaeten
2021-05-04 12:43
Generally speaking, it's very similar across provinces and the one territory. We're working with the two other territories that aren't part of this to try to put in place those systems and the information-sharing agreements to get the right information so we can be confident of giving individual CCB if the hospital provides us this information.
View Kody Blois Profile
Lib. (NS)
View Kody Blois Profile
2021-05-04 12:43
Just because I am curious, can you tell me if all of that information is being sent to the Government of Canada in digital form, or it is in paper form? How does that actually come to you?
View Kody Blois Profile
Lib. (NS)
View Kody Blois Profile
2021-05-04 12:44
Okay. I appreciate that.
I want to go back to Mr. Lawrence's line of questioning. He talked about new Canadians, and we recognize that 50% are still coming from family situations that are always changing. I think we can all appreciate that. Some are individuals who weren't born in the country.
I'll go back to this. Is there room for us to find efficiencies whereby information is shared with other departments that we can blend into the work you are doing? To me, what Mr. Lawrence raised was very valid. The conversation was around organizations in the non-profit sector doing a lot of work, but would IRCC not have a lot of this information that could be shared with CRA?
Frank Vermaeten
View Frank Vermaeten Profile
Frank Vermaeten
2021-05-04 12:45
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 are entitled to.
View Majid Jowhari Profile
Lib. (ON)
Okay.
You talked about the long-term pan-Canadian health data strategy. Can you take the 10 seconds I have left to talk about what you mean by that strategy?
Chantal Richard
View Chantal Richard Profile
Chantal Richard
2021-04-26 15:56
I would just say that the pan-Canadian data strategy is meant to incorporate the information-sharing pieces but also the IT infrastructure, and having those systems speak to one another so that the information is shared more readily as well. The strategy would cover both of those elements.
Iain Stewart
View Iain Stewart Profile
Iain Stewart
2021-04-20 11:17
Thank you, Madam Chair, for the invitation to discuss the Auditor General's performance audit of pandemic preparedness and response. Foremost, we'd like to thank the Auditor General for her work and that of her team. We're pleased that she recognized the efforts of the public service to mobilize, adapt and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Our top priority, as you can imagine, is supporting Canada's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and we are committed to incorporating the lessons learned to better our actions now and to prepare for future pandemics.
The Public Health Agency of Canada accepts all of the recommendations in the Auditor General's report, and we are already organizing ourselves to respond to those recommendations. A formal and detailed action plan has been developed and will be implemented within two years of the pandemic's ending. We're making progress on implementing the plan, but it may take longer than it would under normal circumstances, as many of the people involved in activities with the pandemic are, of course, the people who also need to turn their attention to the report's recommendations.
The Auditor General's report covered the period of January 1, 2020 to June 30, 2020. Since June 2020, of course, the pandemic has continued, and in fact we're in a third wave right now which is very serious. We have taken further actions in some of the areas touched on by the OAG, and therefore some of these things help inform our response to the recommendations.
With respect to, for instance, the recommendations on public health data and information sharing across Canadian jurisdictions, in October 2020, the Public Health Agency implemented a national COVID-19 public health data portal. This supports COVID-19 data collection, sharing and management. We're also working with federal, provincial and territorial partners on a pan-Canadian health data strategy.
On the early detection of public health events, an independent review of the Global Public Health Intelligence Network, GPHIN, is currently under way to ensure that it meets today's public health needs but also looking at its role in global and domestic public health surveillance going forward. We expect a final report and recommendations from this independent review later this spring. The advice and guidance from the Auditor General as well as the work of this review will inform our way forward in this area.
With respect to COVID-19 border measures, the Public Health Agency and the Canada Border Services Agency work very closely together— hand in glove. CBSA expanded its support for frontline border services officers beyond existing operational guideline bulletins with 24-7 live support and regular case reviews. CBSA also supports the Quarantine Act emergency order-in-council measures by conducting detailed technical briefings prior to their implementation to ensure they're well done. CBSA also monitors emergency order-related decisions by border services officers and is developing a training tool to help the border services officers implement the orders in council.
Finally, related to COVID-19 mandatory quarantine administration, in November 2020, PHAC transitioned to mandatory submission of contact information and quarantine plans via the ArriveCAN mobile app and website. This has significantly improved the collection of traveller information and has also supported the verification of compliance with the mandatory requirements.
PHAC's response to the pandemic, therefore, has evolved and been informed at each step by what is the evidence available, the science, the epidemiology, the expert opinions. These can and do change as information and knowledge about the virus and how best to fight it become available.
There are and will continue to be lessons for PHAC. These are lessons we learn through discussions like this. These are lessons we learn from watching how others are dealing with the pandemic. We continue to learn and adjust our approach as we work to respond to this and future global health events. Along with other audits, evaluations and lessons learned from the response, we are looking forward to continuing to improve the work of PHAC.
Thank you for the time.
View Kody Blois Profile
Lib. (NS)
View Kody Blois Profile
2021-04-20 11:29
Mr. Stewart, as the deputy minister for PHAC, how is that information generally disseminated? It's clear for me, or at least in what the Auditor General has said, that we have a bit of a legacy issue in this country, perhaps around our constitutionality, where there doesn't seem to be an easy transfer of information between the federal government and the provinces as it relates to health care. How generally is this health surveillance information shared?
Iain Stewart
View Iain Stewart Profile
Iain Stewart
2021-04-20 11:30
A lot of the information is gathered and made public by the provinces and territories themselves in their reporting. We do have data-sharing agreements and relationships. For instance, right now, during the vaccine rollout, they are providing us weekly updates on the coverage of the different populations that they are vaccinating and so on, but as you just said, quite insightfully, it is an area of federal-provincial jurisdiction, so these arrangements are arrived at collaboratively.
View Lloyd Longfield Profile
Lib. (ON)
View Lloyd Longfield Profile
2021-04-20 12:13
Thank you.
I know that you're also using other contracted labs, including a lab in Guelph, Ontario—which is my riding—so you're really building capacity at the time of a pandemic.
The test was going to happen in March 2020 that was scheduled from 2018, and now you're doing it in real time, so I'm actually going to add my compliments for the work that you're doing and for your answering the call and the challenge to stand up for Canadians.
However, yes, there are things that we need to improve.
I want to pivot over to the Auditor General, Madam Hogan. I'm concerned about paragraph 8.51 in your report, which says the following:
The Public Health Agency of Canada should, in collaboration with...provincial and territorial partners, finalize...annexes to the multi-lateral agreement to help ensure that it receives timely, complete, and accurate surveillance information from its partners. In addition, in collaboration with provinces and territories, the agency should set timelines for completing this agreement.
Another part of your report talks about incomplete information from provinces, which hindered the progress in interpretation of data by the Public Health Agency of Canada. I wonder about the work of the provincial auditors general in coordinating the next audits so that we can see what in their systems is working, what isn't working and how we could maybe collaborate on some of the data-sharing that's so critical. This would include data-sharing on vaccine rollout—which, as Mr. Stewart just said, is another responsibility—and the concern about not getting vaccines distributed properly throughout provinces and territories, which is within their mandate constitutionally to do. Could we look at that via an audit through the provincial organizations?
Karen Hogan
View Karen Hogan Profile
Karen Hogan
2021-04-20 12:15
The member's questions are always very involved. Let me try to answer all of those items.
I'll start, maybe, with the health surveillance information. Definitely, we saw throughout the audit that there was some difficulty in obtaining timely and complete information. I think we all have to acknowledge that the pandemic complicates matters and that, at times, provincial organizations were likely responding and couldn't always provide the information in the needed way. However, that information was needed to help evolve and alter the response.
What we found is that in only about 10% of the cases were symptoms included on the forms at the early stages of the pandemic, which really makes it difficult to understand how a virus might be evolving and how a nationwide response should be formulated.
View Pierre Paul-Hus Profile
CPC (QC)
Thank you.
Ms. Hogan, on page 39 of your report, there is a nice chart that shows the checks you did on people who were required to self-isolate. It shows that 46% of them did not comply with the quarantine order. In that regard, I would like to know if you did the checks for people who were coming into Quebec.
A few weeks ago, the Quebec Department of Public Safety said it did not have information about passengers arriving in Montreal, particularly from Toronto, because there was no exchange of information between the Quebec and Canadian departments of public safety to allow for follow-up. In Quebec, the RCMP is not involved in any of this.
If I understood correctly, no one could do checks on all passengers arriving in Quebec.
Karen Hogan
View Karen Hogan Profile
Karen Hogan
2021-04-20 12:46
The chart indicates that the Public Health Agency of Canada reported 40% of cases where individuals were at high risk of not following quarantine rules to law enforcement. I can't confirm whether we have done these audits for each province. Regardless, we found that only 40% of these cases were reported to law enforcement for follow-up.
View Maxime Blanchette-Joncas Profile
BQ (QC)
Let's talk about communication, since it's the foundation of how departments work. We know that there are sometimes a number of subgroups and employees. In May, after only a few months, we realized that people who were already receiving employment insurance benefits could obtain the Canada emergency response benefit.
What concrete steps could have been taken to consolidate the information?
In the end, the same job was done twice, and these people had already received benefits.
Karen Hogan
View Karen Hogan Profile
Karen Hogan
2021-04-15 12:25
It's a tough question. The deputy ministers may want to comment if you would like to ask them the question afterwards.
The information could have been shared a little earlier. As Mr. Flack said, there were some issues with the technological systems, but as soon as the information could be shared, it was. However, there's also the issue of access to other programs managed by the same department. The Canada Revenue Agency manages several programs, so it's also necessary to share information among the different groups within the department. Our office often sees this issue in its audits, which means that better communication and information sharing are needed. Sometimes it's really about technology issues and not a lack of willingness on the part of individuals.
View Philip Lawrence Profile
CPC (ON)
I just want to assure Mr. Blois that if he deems coverage necessary, that's fine. However, on my honour as a member, I will not be calling a vote in the last session, nor will anyone from our party, in the true spirit of public accounts. He can leave and rest assured.
I want to go through a specific case because I think it's actually emblematic and symptomatic of a bunch of things that went wrong. All that being said, I want this to be based on my knowledge that civil servants worked extremely hard and that a lot of these people on this call worked around the clock to make this happen. However, I want to express the challenges faced by a constituent.
This constituent applied for the CERB because based on the communications, he thought, as many did, that he was eligible. It turned out, due to a technicality, that he wasn't eligible. His accountant actually informed him of that. It wasn't through audit or otherwise.
He went to the CRA website—he has it all documented—three separate times, and three separate times, the CRA website was down. He finally gave up and said, “I'm going to do my duty as a citizen and make sure this money gets back before the end of the year.“ He then went to the bank, where he was told, “Oh, yeah; you just pay that to ESDC.” He paid it to ESDC, and then he got a nasty letter from CRA saying he wasn't eligible to get this money, he hadn't paid it back, and he had to pay it back now. On top of that, they were taxing him on that money. He then contacted ESDC and said, “I want that money back, please. I told CRA I paid it, but it's at ESDC.”
ESDC has no idea. We're now in week eight of trying to get that money back. We've had no response. I've personally talked to two or three different civil servants. He has talked to about 15 different civil servants. He has called the CRA more times than you can imagine. He's been put on hold for hours and he's been hung up on multiple times.
I bring this to your attention because there are a number of challenges. At one point, the official laughed and said, “Oh, there are thousands of people with that problem.”
He's tried to do the right thing all the way along. He handed $14,000 to the government and it won't give it back to him. Could someone from either the CRA or ESDC comment on that, please?
Cliff C. Groen
View Cliff C. Groen Profile
Cliff C. Groen
2021-04-15 13:09
Thank you for the question. I'll go first, and maybe colleagues from CRA would follow
I very much regret to hear the challenges that your constituent has gone through. Certainly we try—and in the vast majority of situations are able—to provide very timely service to Canadians. That is what we are here for. I sincerely regret hearing in particular about your constituent. Perhaps through the committee you would be able to provide us with the specific name of that client. I can absolutely commit that we will follow up directly with him to try to address his situation as quickly as possible.
Karen Hogan
View Karen Hogan Profile
Karen Hogan
2021-04-13 12:09
Madam Chair, I am pleased to be here to discuss our audit reports, which were tabled in the House of Commons on March 25. I am accompanied by Carol McCalla, Philippe Le Goff, Chantal Richard, Jo Ann Schwartz and Nicholas Swales, the principals who were responsible for the audits.
The reports presented were the first of many audits that my office will conduct on the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. I also provided Parliament with our report on the Investing in Canada plan.
There is no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic was an all-hands-on-deck emergency the world over. Governments had to mobilize quickly to respond to the public, health, social and economic effects of this pandemic. Canada was no exception.
While we found that the government was not as ready as it could have been for a pandemic of this magnitude, the public service mobilized, prioritized the needs of Canadians, and quickly delivered support and services. We did not observe the same service mindset and interdepartmental coordination in our audit of the investing in Canada plan, which I will turn to first.
The investing in Canada plan is important because the government is investing $188 billion to generate long-term economic growth, improve communities' resiliency, support the transition to a green economy, and improve social inclusion and socio-economic outcomes for all Canadians.
Infrastructure Canada is unable to present a full picture of results achieved and progress made under the investing in Canada plan. We found that the department's reporting excluded almost half of the government's investment because it did not capture more than $92 billion of funding that was committed before the plan's creation in 2016.
In addition, Infrastructure Canada's reporting captured only some programs each year, making it impossible to compare results year over year. The clarity of reporting was also impacted by inconsistent information received from federal partners in the plan. The absence of clear and complete reporting on the Investing in Canada plan makes it difficult for parliamentarians and Canadians to know whether progress is being made against the intended objectives.
The issues affecting the Investing in Canada plan are not new. We have seen similar problems in many past audits in areas that require cross-departmental or cross-jurisdictional collaboration, such as indigenous issues and climate change. This audit is yet another example of the need for the government to act on known issues—in this case, the need for broad collaboration and clear reporting on results for this large initiative.
In contrast, we observed nimbleness during our audits of the government's COVID-19 response.
I am going to turn first to the Canada emergency response benefit.
With this benefit, the government wanted to quickly deliver financial support to eligible individuals.
We found that the Department of Finance Canada, Employment and Social Development Canada, and the Canada Revenue Agency rose to the challenge and quickly analyzed, designed and delivered the Canada emergency response benefit.
To simplify the process and get support to people quickly, Employment and Social Development Canada and the Canada Revenue Agency took the approach of relying on personal attestations and automated prepayment controls to validate applicants' eligibility. Once the benefit was launched, they introduced additional prepayment controls to limit potential abuse.
With the decision to rely on personal attestations, host payment verification becomes very important. Employment and Social Development Canada and the Canada Revenue Agency are working to start their post-payment verification efforts related to the Canada emergency response benefit later this year. Their work in this area will be the subject of a future audit.
I will turn now to the Canada emergency wage subsidy. We observed a similar focus on getting help out quickly, in this case to businesses. Once again, the Department of Finance Canada and the Canada Revenue Agency worked together within short time frames to support the development and implementation of the Canada emergency wage subsidy.
The design and rollout of the subsidy highlighted pre-existing weaknesses in the agency's systems, approaches and data. These weaknesses will need to be addressed to improve the robustness of Canada's tax system.
To prioritize issuing payments, the Canada Revenue Agency made decisions about the information it would ask for and the prepayment controls it would use.
For example, the agency decided that it would not ask for social insurance numbers, though this information could have helped prevent the doubling up of applications for financial support. This decision limited the agency's ability to perform prepayment validations, as did the absence of complete and up-to-date tax information that would have helped it efficiently assess applications.
I am going to now turn to our last audit, which focused on pandemic preparedness, surveillance and border control measures.
In this audit, we found that the Public Health Agency of Canada was not as well-prepared as it could have been to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Not all emergency and response plans were up to date or tested, and data-sharing agreements with the provinces and territories were not finalized.
The Public Health Agency relied on a risk assessment tool that was untested and not designed to consider pandemic risk. The agency continued to assess the risk as low, despite growing numbers of COVID-19 cases in Canada and worldwide. In addition, the Global Public Health Intelligence Network did not issue an alert about the virus that would become known as causing COVID-19.
I am discouraged that the Public Health Agency of Canada did not address long-standing issues, some of which had been raised repeatedly for more than two decades. These issues negatively affected the sharing of surveillance data between the agency and the provinces and territories during the pandemic. While the agency took steps to address some of these problems during the pandemic, it has much more work to do on its data-sharing agreements and its information technology infrastructure to better support national disease surveillance in the future.
We also found that the Public Health Agency of Canada and the Canada Border Services Agency implemented restrictions at the border as well as quarantine measures. They provided guidance and tools to inform travellers and essential workers coming into the country of public health requirements.
However, the Public Health Agency of Canada had not contemplated or planned for a quarantine on a nationwide scale, from the collection of travellers' information through to all enforcement activities, including following up on those identified to be at risk of non-compliance. As a result, the agency does not know if the majority of travellers properly quarantined.
These audits looked at programs that were rolled out in record time. Faced with a pandemic, the public service focused on the pressing outcome: helping Canadians.
In its first year, the pandemic has shown that when the public service must, the public service can. This crisis has highlighted the importance of dealing with known issues, whether it's agreeing on which organization has the lead; who will do what, and when; who will report what, and to whom; or replacing outdated systems or processes and addressing issues in data quality.
These are not problems that you want to have to deal with at the same time that you are focusing on helping people, because this is not an efficient way of working, nor is it a productive way to serve Canadians. Government organizations need to do collaboration better.
Madam Chair, this concludes my opening statement. We are now pleased to answer questions that you may have.
Thank you.
View Brian Masse Profile
NDP (ON)
View Brian Masse Profile
2021-04-08 15:51
I'm just looking for the status for us and the United States in sharing information related to privacy rights for the use of autonomous vehicles and trucks between Canada and the United States. For them to operate in both jurisdictions, we need to have comprehensive data and privacy management plans and also cost-sharing with regard to those plans. Otherwise, they'll be comprised and won't be able to work.
I'm just wondering if you can update us on what's going on with that. We want to do the same things with batteries, but if we don't do that with data management and autonomous vehicles, they'll become useless on each side of the border.
View Marc Garneau Profile
Lib. (QC)
I'm going to put on my old Transport hat, because that was very much something that I was engaged in with the Secretary of Transportation in the United States. Where we harmonize with respect to regulations, we were indeed talking about the whole concept of autonomous vehicles and the very critical issue of privacy rights because of the environment in which autonomous vehicles would be operating.
I can assure you that for both Canada and the United States, when we talk about autonomous vehicles, we're not just talking about regulations with respect to how they operate. Because of the nature of autonomous vehicles, we're both very sensitive to privacy rights. That is part of the discussion that my successor, Minister Alghabra, is currently engaged in with Secretary Buttigieg.
View Kerry-Lynne Findlay Profile
CPC (BC)
Thank you.
The NFL's written submission to our committee detailed the importance of requiring official league data to protect consumers and ensure integrity in the sports betting marketplace. In your view, is this necessary? If it is, why?
Keith Wachtel
View Keith Wachtel Profile
Keith Wachtel
2021-03-23 11:22
We think that it's important for all sports books or anyone who is involved in the ecosystem to use the league's data. That is the verified data. I think it provides consumers with the feeling of authenticity and that it's backed by the property where the data's coming from.
We have noticed in the United States that all of the sports betting companies are securing that data directly from either the league or from third parties like Sportradar. They are happy to do so because they want the ability to provide the best information to the public in an authentic way.
We support it whether it is part of the regulations or not. We do believe that all the sports books will want to secure the league's data.
View Kerry-Lynne Findlay Profile
CPC (BC)
Without divulging specific parties or confidential negotiations, have you already been in some talks to license official league data in Canada?
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