Oh, oh!
Evidence of meeting #37 for Finance in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was amendment.
A video is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #37 for Finance in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was amendment.
A video is available from Parliament.
5:15 p.m.
Voices
Oh, oh!
5:15 p.m.
NDP
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
5:15 p.m.
Senior Legislative Chief, Tax Legislation Division, Tax Policy Branch, Department of Finance
There is a definition of official. I'm speaking about part I of the Income Tax Act. There is, I believe, a definition; we're talking about the GST provisions at the moment. There is a definition of official. It simply provides that an official is a person in the service of Her Majesty in right of Canada or a province.
What I've been speaking to is the actual process that the CRA is implementing to manage the authority that would be granted under the provision.
5:15 p.m.
NDP
Murray Rankin NDP Victoria, BC
Mr. Cook, you talked about the general procedure where there's a search warrant issued by a justice of the peace where there's reasonable grounds to believe there's an offence. If I'm interpreting this bill correctly, that's not what would be done in the current circumstance. Am I correct?
5:15 p.m.
Senior Legislative Chief, Tax Legislation Division, Tax Policy Branch, Department of Finance
Sorry, I'm not sure which circumstance you're referring to.
5:15 p.m.
NDP
Murray Rankin NDP Victoria, BC
If this amendment goes through.... If clause 50, which we're debating, were to go through, there would be no search warrant justice of the peace provision. It would simply be an official, as you say, anybody, being able to turn over whatever he or she thinks is reasonable grounds to believe would constitute an offence.
5:15 p.m.
Senior Legislative Chief, Tax Legislation Division, Tax Policy Branch, Department of Finance
No, no. It doesn't change the search warrant process. What I've explained is that very often, the kind of information that the CRA would like to turn over to the police is actually information that has been acquired in the course of executing a search warrant. Even though the information has been acquired in the course of executing a search warrant, because it's been extracted, or the import of the information has just been realized, sometime after the execution of the search warrant, the CRA is prohibited, even though it was acquired under search warrant, from providing that to a police organization.
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Rajotte
I think that's very helpful.
(Amendment negatived [See Minutes of Proceedings])
5:15 p.m.
An hon. member
On division.
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
5:15 p.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
If you wouldn't mind, could we do clauses 51 through 55?
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
5:15 p.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Just as a small note here, this is maybe one of those happy occasions where it's.... The process we're in right now is omnibus legislation, and part of the bill is being used to fix previous omnibus legislation. We're happy that once it was identified by Canadians, particularly by hospitals and by those visiting family members in hospitals that they were being taxed this way, the government had to stand down. We can only imagine, through these other hundreds of clauses in this bill, that we'll be back here next year fixing things in this fantastic piece of legislation.
We thank the government for seeing the light and the pressure from so many Canadians. So we'll be in favour, but we'll ask for a recorded vote on this one just to fully feel the moment, Chair.
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Rajotte
Okay.
I'm sure the government appreciates your description, “fantastic piece of legislation”.
5:15 p.m.
An hon. member
I'm sure they'll quote that widely.
5:15 p.m.
Liberal
Scott Brison Liberal Kings—Hants, NS
Let's be very clear on what clauses 56 and 57 actually accomplish.
While clauses 58 to 60 remove the GST or HST on hospital parking, which we support, clauses 56 and 57 will have the opposite effect. In fact clauses 56 and 57 reduce the scope of an exception that allows charities to provide GST-free parking in certain cases. That's an elaborate way of saying that clauses 56 and 57 will actually have the effect of adding GST and HST to certain parking services provided by charities.
We do not support clauses 56 and 57. We view this as a tax grab on charities. We actually oppose these two amendments.
5:20 p.m.
Conservative