(Return tabled) Question No. 611 Ms. Kirsty Duncan: With respect to the government’s plans for resource development, as described in the section entitled “Responsible Resource Development” in Chapter 3.2 of Budget 2012: (a) what are all examples of federal environmental laws that are stronger than provincial laws and how will the proposed legislative changes to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (CEAA) affect the assessment of environmental impacts of industrial projects that cross provincial borders; (b) what research, action, or investment has the government undertaken to study impacts of the proposed legislative changes to the CEAA on (i) regulatory decision-making, (ii) risk of project-specific and cumulative environmental impac ...[+++]ts, (iii) risk mitigation by developers, (iv) Canada’s reputation; (c) what briefing notes, memos, or any other documentation, including, for each, the details of its findings and recommendations, have been provided to the Prime Minister, Minister of Natural Resources, Minister of the Environment, their respective Parliamentary Secretaries, their respective Deputy Ministers, and their respective staff members, regarding impacts of the proposed legislative changes to the CEAA on (i) regulatory decision-making, (ii) risk of project-specific and cumulative environmental impacts, (iii) mitigation by developers, (iv) Canada’s reputation; (d) will the proposed legislative changes to the CEAA give any consideration to (i) measuring negative impacts of development, (ii) managing negative impacts of development; (e) by what date will the government bring forth new “legislation to streamline the review process for major economic projects” (Budget 2012, p. 89); (f) what are the projected costs of changes to the CEAA for each province and territory; (g) what assessments of the adequacy of the environmental assessment process in each province and territory have been conducted, (i) what were the dates of any such assessments, (ii) what wer ...

Question No. 552 Mr. Hoang Mai: With regard to tax evasion and its effects on the Canadian economy: (a) does the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) publish estimates of the tax gap caused by offshore tax avoidance, and, (i) if so, which method does the government utilize to calculate this gap, (ii) if not, why not; (b) what is the 10-year trend for (i) the number of transfer pricing audits, (ii) the budgeting for and Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) staffing of auditors dealing with transfer pricing audit; (c) what is the amount of annual capital flow from Canada to the United States resulting from bilateral trade mispricing (i) per capital flow, (ii) by proportion of total trade, (iii) per tax loss; (d) what is the amount of annual capital flow from Canada to the Eur ...[+++]opean Union resulting from bilateral trade mispricing (i) per capital flow, (ii) by proportion of total trade, (iii) per tax loss; (e) what is the amount of annual capital flow resulting from multilateral trade mispricing (i) per capital flow, (ii) by proportion of total trade, (iii) per tax loss; (f) what are the internal deadlines set by the Exchange of Information (EOI) Services (CRA) as concerns responses to EOI requests received, (i) how many EOI requests received does the CRA deal with per year, (ii) what is the 10-year trend for EOI requests received by the CRA, (iii) what is the median response time for an EOI request received by the CRA, (iv) from which jurisdiction does the CRA receive the most EOI requests, (v) from which jurisdiction does the CRA request the most EOIs; (g) does Canada collaborate with its EOI partners to ensure the EOI provisions are not restricted, and, if so, (i) with which jurisdictions, (ii) to what specific ends, (iii) have there been any changes to the CRA approach as a result of these collaborations; (h) how prevalent are bearer shares in Canada, (i) what measures exist to ensure that ownership information is available with no exceptions, (ii) are all nominees obliged to ma ...

Is concerned at the complexity of EU financial regulations and guidelines for European financial instruments, in particular when European funds and programmes are used to support individual enterprises through the provision of relatively small amounts of funding; considers that the expense in terms of time and money involved in complying with these regulations is out of all proportion to the benefits for the final recipient of the funding; calls for streamlined management, administrative and reporting efficiency and cost-effectivene ...[+++]ss in connection with innovative financial instruments; insists that banks, intermediaries and beneficiaries must not be discouraged or deterred from using programmes and funds by the administrative burdens involved; asks the Commission to propose simplified and less costly regulations and guidelines, especially for programmes intended to support low-volume SME finance in the form of guarantees and mezzanine or equity instruments;

Increase the importance of the annual euro-area surveillance reports based on quarterly, thematic, multi-country reports, focusing, on the one hand, on potential spill-over effects from global economic developments and from policies and circumstances having a particular impact on certain Member States in the euro area and, on the other hand, on the effects that economic decisions taken by the Euro Group may have on the countries and regions outside the euro area; special attention should be given to identifying policies that generate positive spill-over effects, in particular during economic downturns, and thereby ...[+++]support sustainable growth in the whole euro area,

by 31 March every year, the control body or control authority shall send a concise annual report to the Commission; the annual report shall update the information of the technical dossier referred to in Article 4(3); it shall describe in particular the control activities carried out by the control body or control authority in the third countries during the previous year, the results obtained, the irregularities and infringements observed and the corrective measures taken; it shall furthermore contain the most recent assessment repo ...[+++]rt or update of such report, which shall contain the results of the regular on-the-spot evaluation, surveillance and multiannual reassessment as referred to in Article 32(2) of Regulation (EC) No 834/2007; the Commission may request any other information deemed necessary;

- speed up implementation of the European Charter for Small Enterprises and give strong consideration to good practices, in particular those identified in the course of the Best Procedure and the annual report on the Charter implementation; close performance gaps between different Member States; and include information in Member States' contribution to this report on the practical measures taken and envisaged as a consequence, in particular to: