My question is for the Leader of the Government in the Senate. The deadline for Canadians to file their income tax returns was April 30. Many Canadians don’t file a tax return, so they are missing out on a number of assistance measures associated with filing a tax return. Researchers at Carleton University estimate that between 10% and 12% of Canadians do not file a tax return and that these individuals missed out on roughly $1.7 billion in benefits in 2015. We know that this phenomenon particularly affects the most disadvantaged and marginalized members of our society.

In 2024, the CRA expanded its SimpleFile by Phone service, which allows low-income Canadians to file their returns automatically. This is a good step forward, but more needs to be done, especially to reach more marginalized groups that may face language and technological barriers or have no fixed address. Leader, can you tell us what the government intends to do to further automate tax filing and ensure that Canadians receive the assistance to which they are entitled?

One of the major issues is that it’s hard to assess the government’s performance in reaching the most disadvantaged members of our society because Statistics Canada and the CRA don’t produce any estimates regarding the number of non-filers, similar to what is done with tax evasion. Could the government commit to periodically producing an estimate of the number of Canadians who don’t file a tax return so that we can measure the efforts that are being made to reach the most disadvantaged members of our society, who, unfortunately, are not getting the benefits to which they are entitled?