Section 276 — Excise Tax Act: Inquiry

The Minister may, for any purpose related to the administration or enforcement of this Part, authorize any person, whether or not the person is an officer of the Canada Revenue Agency, to make such inquiry as the Minister may deem necessary with reference to anything relating to the administration or enforcement of this Part. Where the Minister, under subsection (1), authorizes a person to make an inquiry, the Minister shall forthwith apply to the Tax Court for an order appointing a hearing officer before whom the inquiry will be held. For the purposes of an inquiry authorized under subsection (1), a hearing officer appointed under subsection (2) in relation thereto has all the powers conferred on a commissioner by sections 4 and 5 of the Inquiries Act and that may be conferred on a commissioner under section 11 of that Act. A hearing officer appointed under subsection (2) in relation to an inquiry shall exercise the powers conferred on a commissioner by section 4 of the Inquiries Act in relation to such persons as the person authorized to make the inquiry considers appropriate for the conduct thereof, but the hearing officer shall not exercise the power to punish any person unless, on application by the hearing officer, a judge of a superior or county court certifies that the power may be exercised in the matter disclosed in the application and the applicant has given to the person in respect of whom the power is proposed to be exercised twenty-four hours notice of the hearing of the application, or such shorter notice as the judge considers reasonable. Any person who gives evidence in an inquiry authorized under subsection (1) is entitled to be represented by counsel and, on request made by the person to the Minister, to receive a transcript of that evidence. Any person whose affairs are investigated in the course of an inquiry authorized under subsection (1) is entitled to be present and to be represented by counsel throughout the inquiry unless the hearing officer appointed under subsection (2), on application by the Minister or a person giving evidence, orders otherwise in relation to the whole or any part of the inquiry, on the ground that the presence of the person and the person’s counsel, or either of them, would be prejudicial to the effective conduct of the inquiry.